The jailing on Monday, October 14, of nine Catalan pro-independence leaders for a total of 100 years sparked six consecutive days of mass demonstrations, road blocks and riots, transforming the region into the epicentre of a debate on political and civil rights.
Despite a second week of protests and a mass pro-independence rally of over 350,000 people in the centre of Barcelona, Spain’s interim government continues to refuse to treat events in Catalonia as a political crisis, instead reiterating claims that disturbances have been the result of small groups of organised separatists backed by a dissident and sectarian regional government. Yet, 600 injuries and 200 arrests (including journalists), 19 hospitalisations, 28 imprisonments and a widely-observed general strike during just the first week of the protests are indications of a problem much larger than acting Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is – at least publically – willing to admit. While the images of burning barricades and running street battles have stolen the attention of the international media, the reality is a democratic mass movement increasingly frustrated with successive governments who have sought juridical answers to political problems.
The general consensus on both sides of the independence debate is that last week’s sentencing of seven ministers and two civil leaders was politically motivated and that the lengthy prison terms handed down are part of Spain’s ongoing strategy: to use of the courts to derail the growing movement. Critics regard the sentence as having been decided in ministerial offices in the immediate aftermath of the referendum rather than during proceedings at the Supreme Court. During the three-month televised trial, Catalans watched State and Fiscal prosecutors continually manipulate evidence to demonstrate the existence of violence on the day of the popular vote, necessary for the charge of rebellion.
