Barcelona celebrated the independence of Catalonia
BARCELONA, October 28. /Offset. TASS Ivan Batyrev/. Mass euphoria, the human sea in the streets and squares, concert and fireworks in front of the Generalitat — the Autonomous government of Catalonia — Barcelona is so noted on Friday, the Declaration of independence from Spain voted in the afternoon the Catalan Parliament.
Festivities lasted until late Saturday night.
Concert and fireworks
The main centre of the celebrations was the square of St. James in the heart of the old city. There in a limited space opposite each other stand two ancient palaces, representing the long history of the Catalan government — Barcelona city hall and Generalitat Palace. Immediately after it became known about the long-awaited adoption in Catalonia of the Declaration of independence, the area was rushed by tens of thousands of people. This led to chaos on all the surrounding streets, causing the police was even forced to restrict entrance to the square, which was filled to capacity.
According to city police of Barcelona, just in the area gathered about 17 thousand people. Over the human sea flew in many “Escalade” — the stars and stripes supporters of Catalan independence. The crowd and then began to sing Patriotic songs and chanting traditional slogans “Independence,” “the Streets will always be our,” “long live Catalonia”.
Another refrain of the demonstrations was a demand to Spain to release “two questions” — the leaders of the two largest public associations of the Catalan nationalist Jordi Kaisara (“Omnium Cultural”) and Jordi Sanchez (“Catalan national Assembly”). They were both placed under arrest in early October for “inciting civil disobedience” and now remain in custody.
These two organizations, which was for many years one of the main engines of the Catalan movement for secession from Spain, organized on the square of St. James’s impromptu concert, mounted a small stage directly in front of the Palace of the Generalitat. Presentations were made by rock-musicians, performers of traditional music, and public figures. The congregation had hoped that the Prime Minister Carles Putteman, the whole evening conducted a meeting with his advisers, Ministers will go out on the balcony of the Palace and say a welcome word, but it never happened.
Fireworks end the feast of the Catalan Republic amisdt happiness and joy. Free-dom. pic.twitter.com/RSfd6FmU5I
— Help Catalonia ? (@CataloniaHelp2) October 27, 2017
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The festive evening ended modest-scale fireworks, but once the stage is cleared, people in this Friday evening was in no hurry to go home. The streets were still full of happy people with flags until late at night. Small areas of the old town someone held a circle, all the surrounding bars are filled with people, and someone is celebrating with champagne right in the middle of the street — the mood at all elated.