Eighteen people, ten of whom are minors, have been arrested for public disorder offenses in several riots that occurred in Barcelona during the celebration yesterday Friday of the National Day of Catalonia, incidents in which nine Catalan police officers were slightly injured.
The riots began in the mid-afternoon around Mossèn Jacint Verdaguer square, on the Diagonal of Barcelona, where the Mossos charged to prevent direct confrontation between neo-Nazi and antifascist demonstrators.
The ultra organization Núcleo Nacional had called for a rally this Friday under the slogan “Catalanidad es Hispanidad” in front of the Verdaguer monument, where a thousand antifascist demonstrators called by the Socialist Youth Organization (OJS) gathered.
The incidents later moved to the area of the Sant Joan promenade and the surroundings of the Arc de Triomf, where antifascist demonstrators burned containers, various urban furniture materials, and threw objects at the officers.
For these incidents, according to the Mossos, seventeen people were arrested, of whom nine are minors.
Incidents were also recorded in Catalunya square, where another group of OJS activists moved after finishing a demonstration called by the independentist entity ANC, among whose attendees was the leader of Aliança Catalana, Silvia Orriols.
Sources from the Mossos explained that the riot police deployed in the square protected “deputy Orriols” against attempts by antifascist demonstrators to breach the police line.
In Catalunya square, the Mossos arrested another person, a minor, for these incidents.
On Thursday night, three more people were arrested by the Mossos in the Fossar de les Moreres of Barcelona, where the police had to act to prevent clashes between militants of the independentist left and Aliança Catalana. The duty judge of Barcelona released them yesterday with charges.
Junts will demand explanations for detaining minors
The spokesperson of Junts in the Parliament, Salvador Vergés, has announced that his party will submit questions in the Parliament so that the Minister of Interior and Public Security of the Generalitat, Núria Parlon, gives explanations for the detention of minors during the Diada with an “excessive use of force, threats, and families without information”.
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