In Catalonia today a general strike has started in protest against the prison sentences for nine separatist leaders. At the Barcelona airport, several dozen flights were canceled, mainly by the companies Iberia and Vueling. However, the flights to Vienna are currently not affected, as Vienna Airport announced.
Many passengers and passengers had come as a precaution, five hours, six hours before their flight to El Prat Airport, reported the Spanish television. Dockers and employees of the automaker Seat also stopped work; The large Catalan supermarket chain Bonpreu also remained closed.
Roads blocked in the morning
The train traffic was initially normal, but the security forces were strengthened about at the central station of Barcelona, it said. Protesters and protesters blocked several roads in the breakaway region early in the morning. During the day, further demonstrations and protests were expected.
In the afternoon, five „marches for freedom“ should reach Barcelona. The participants had set out some days ago in different parts of the region in the direction of their capital, where a major rally is planned.
The Supreme Court in Madrid had sentenced the separatist leaders to long prison sentences of up to 13 years on Monday for their role in the illegal separation referendum held on 1 October. Since then, there have been protests in Catalonia from supporters of the region’s independence in northeastern Spain.
Puigdemont contacted Belgian police
The former Catalan regional president Carles Puigdemont, meanwhile, contacted the police in Brussels after Spain renewed an international arrest warrant against him. Puigdemont had done this of his own volition, according to a statement in his office. He contradicts the allegations of the Spanish judiciary.
Puigdemont fled to Belgium in 2017. The Spanish judiciary accuses him of rioting and misappropriation of public funds. An earlier request for extradition was not followed by the Belgian authorities.
