Violence after strike leads to 20 arrests in Barcelona
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on Africanews
Twenty people were arrested after violence in Barcelona following the main demonstration of the general strike, including 18 during the night-time riots. Shops were vandalised and barricades set alight, according to Catalan authorities cited by Africanews.
Masked groups clashed with police from 7.30pm in Barcelona, after a demonstration attended by between 55,000 people according to police and 400,000 according to organisers. The Mossos d’Esquadra, Catalonia’s autonomous police force, used baton charges and foam projectiles to disperse the rioters, according to Africanews.
Eighteen of the 20 people arrested were detained during the night-time riots, while burning containers and barricades on fire blocked the city centre. The president of the Government of Catalonia, Salvador Illa, condemned the violence, saying it did not represent the majority of peaceful demonstrators, according to Africanews.
The mobilisation was the first general strike observed in Spain since 2012. The trade union movement is notably being fuelled by difficulties related to housing, wage trends and public services, according to Africanews.
