Hundreds of thousands have gathered in central Barcelona to call for Spanish unity two days after the Catalan parliament voted for independence and the Spanish government took control of the region.
The demonstration on Sunday, which began at 12 noon local time, was convened by the anti-independence group Societat Civil Catalana, which organised an event earlier this month that was attended by similar numbers.
People with Spanish flags tied around their necks headed towards the Passeig de Gràcia, one of Barcelona’s main thoroughfares. Others carried white banners with the flags of Catalonia, Spain and the EU surrounded by a heart.
The event’s slogan was “We are all Catalonia. Common sense for co-existence” and drew people from the region and beyond as well as members of the Spanish government and pro-unity Catalan MPs.
Speaking shortly before the march, Inés Arrimadas of the Citizens party, said: “The silent majority of Catalans are once again taking to the street to show that the majority of Catalans feel Catalan, Spanish and European.”
Arrimadas said the time had come to “restore Catalonia’s institutions” and prepare for the regional elections called by the Spanish government for 21 December.
Juan Montalvo, 65, a retiree from Mataró, a town 30km from Barcelona, had travelled to the protest with his 29-year-old son Roger. “We’ve come to give our opinion and show that part of Catalonia feels Spanish as well,” he said. “Catalan society is divided. We need to achieve more unity, but also to show [pro-independence Catalans] that we are 50% and they need to respect us like we need to respect them.”
Montalvo, who was born in Extremadura, said he felt increasingly like a Spanish immigrant even though he speaks Catalan and is married to a woman from the region. His son added: “I feel Catalan, but for me that means being Catalan inside a Spanish state.”
Some protesters shouted “viva España” while others vented their anger at Carles Puigdemont, who was fired as Catalan president by the Spanish government on Friday night, chanting: “Puigdemont to prison!”
On Sunday afternoon, Spain’s foreign minister, Alfonso Dastis, told Associated Press that Puigdemont could “theoretically” run for re-election in the December polls “if he is not put in jail at that time”.
Two days earlier, Spanish prosecutors said they would file charges of “rebellion” against Puigdemont, a crime punishable with up to 30 years in prison.
Madrid claimed direct control of Catalonia for the first time in nearly four decades on Saturday, sacking the regional government and police chief after the declaration of independence. But the deposed Catalan leader immediately vowed there would be peaceful resistance to the takeover.
Hours after the Spanish government formally announced his dismissal and the replacement of his entire cabinet by counterparts hundreds of miles away, Puigdemont put on an ostentatious display of normality with lunch at a restaurant in the centre of his home city, Girona.
As he toasted friends with red wine, posed for pictures with supporters and enjoyed the applause of fellow diners, broadcast live on national TV, a pre-recorded video message went out promising to continue to work “to build a free nation”.
“We must do so resisting repression and threats, without ever abandoning, at any time, civic and peaceful conduct,” he said, adding that his government did not have or want “the argument of force”.
The Catalan republic that was declared on Friday is not legal under current Spanish law. As well as removing Puigdemont’s existing powers, Madrid dissolved the Catalan parliament that declared independence and called new elections for 21 December, the earliest possible date.
Spain’s deputy prime minister, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, who has managed the government’s response to the Catalan crisis, has been appointed to run Catalonia on a day-to-day basis until then. But the string of government orders published on Saturday morning provide only the outline for Madrid’s takeover. The Spanish prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, now faces the challenge of implementing it.
The region has been officially self-governing since its statute of autonomy was signed in 1979, as Spain returned to democracy after the death of dictator Francisco Franco in 1975. Many of the thousands of supporters of independence who were weeping and celebrating on the streets of Barcelona and other towns on Friday had pledged peaceful resistance to Madrid’s orders even before Puigdemont’s carefully worded call for resistance.
Activists have offered to form human chains around buildings to protect officials, some of whom are expected to face arrest and possible jail sentences for their role in both the referendum and the declaration of independence that followed.
Some of the region’s 200,000 civil servants have said they will not accept orders from Madrid and one Catalan union has also called a 10-day strike starting tomorrow in support of the new republic, although larger groups have not joined them.
Josep Lluís Trapero, head of the regional Mossos d’Esquadra police, who won praise for his response to the August terrorist attacks, has been the only senior official to say he will comply with Madrid, accepting a demotion to commissar.