Protesters blocked roads and train lines across Catalonia on Wednesday, provoking commuter anger in a strike called by a pro-independence union after separatist leaders were detained in Madrid over their divisive secession drive.
More than 50 routes including major motorways were cut, causing widespread disruption in the region, which has been plunged into uncertainty over its now-deposed government’s bid to split from Spain. The crisis has shaken a European Union still getting to grips with Britain’s decision to leave the bloc, and raised fears of social unrest and prolonged disruption to the eurozone’s fourth-largest economy.
Huge banners were draped across at least one tunnel in Barcelona, blocking entry, and activists also cut off main roads linking the region of 7.5 million people to France and to the Spanish capital.
“Warning. Big problems at the heart of the commuter train system due to an invasion of people and objects on the tracks,” Rodalies de Catalunya, which manages commuter trains in the region, said on Twitter. At one protest in Sitges, southwest of Barcelona, demonstrators set up banners, deckchairs and a table-top game of chess as long queues of motorists formed.
Belgian PM denies ‘crisis’ over deposed Catalan leader
Brussels: Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel denied his Government was in “crisis” over the arrival of deposed Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont, an issue which risks reigniting Belgian communal tensions. “There is a political crisis in Spain and not in Belgium,” Michel told the Belgian Parliament.