STUDENTS gathered in the Catalan capital Barcelona and other cities yesterday after a third night of demonstrations over the imprisonment of rapper Pablo Hasel, amid signs the Spanish government could crack down on their protests.
The students demanded the rapper’s freedom, as well as an amnesty for Catalonia’s political prisoners and those who had been locked up during the demonstrations.
Around 200 of them marched through the city chanting, setting off firecrackers and throwing eggs at a police station, after earlier occupying a university building – and their actions looked set to continue into the night. Hasel recently lost an appeal and is facing an additional prison term of two-and-a-half years for obstructing justice and assault.
Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez spoke out against the protests and publicly rebuked the junior partner in his coalition government.
Podemos leader, Pablo Iglesias, and other party officials had criticised the “democratic anomaly” that resulted in an artist being jailed for crimes of opinion. Jaume Asens, head of their parliamentary group also filed a petition urging a pardon for Hasel – and another rapper Valtonyc, who is exiled in Belgium after a similar sentence.
Sanchez said: “In a full democracy like Spain, the use of violence is inadmissible. Violence is not a freedom, it is an attack on the freedoms of others and democracy.
“The Spanish government will deal with any form of violence and ensure public safety.”
He made no mention of the violent actions of riot police across Spain, which have left scores of people injured, including one young woman who lost an eye.
Meanwhile, the grassroots group the Catalan National Assembly (ANC) has announced a demonstration in Barcelona on February 28 in support of a pro-independence coalition government after last weekend’s Catalan elections. The ANC has urged the Republican Left (ERC), Together for Catalonia (JxCat) and the left-wing CUP to “not waste this great result”.
Elisenda Paluzie, the ANC president, said only such an executive would “allow progress towards independence”. She added she was aware there were differences between the three, but they should “work with a sense of state”.
Paluzie said: “We are aware that the strategies of the three candidacies are different but they coincide with the goal and they must be able to find consensus and take concrete action.
“The movement has shown its growing strength in number of deputies and in percentage of votes. We see that there is room between the three formations to ... prepare for unilateralism.”
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