As crackdown looms in Catalonia, Spain’s Popular Party calls protest in Barcelona
By
Alejandro López
9 August 2018
Hundreds of thousands marched yesterday in a protest called in Barcelona by right-wing political forces, a week after the regional Catalan government held a referendum on secession and ahead of the potential unilateral declaration of independence by the secessionist forces on Tuesday.
After violently attempting to suppress last weekend’s independence referendum in Catalonia, the Madrid ruling elite is moving rapidly towards a crackdown and military rule in the region.
Under the slogan “Enough, let’s recover good sense!” between 350,000 and 400,000 people marched in the streets of Barcelona. Many waved Spanish flags, Spain’s imperial flag, the European flag and also the senyeres (the Catalanian non-secessionist flag).
The demonstration was called by Societat Civil Catalana (Catalan Civil Society) and supported by right-wing organizations including the ruling Popular Party (PP) and Citizens, with the semi-official endorsement of the Socialist Party. Far-right groups also joined the protest including the Falange of 20th century fascist dictator Francisco Franco, the Platform for Catalonia, the Platform for a Civic Catalonia, Somatemps, VOX, and others.
Societat Civil Catalana aims to build an anti-secessionist alternative to the secessionist Catalan National Assembly, though it has only a few thousand members. Its links to the far-right are well known. In its founding congress in 2014, invited guests included Santiago Abascal (VOX), a delegation of France’s National Front, a delegation representing the Francisco Franco National Foundation, and the neo-Nazi Social Republican Movement, the sister party of Greece’s Golden Dawn.
The main chants…