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Pro-independence Catalans in Barcelona greet France’s Macron with protest

Pro-independence Catalan protesters demonstrate in Barcelona, January 19, 2021. (File photo)

Thousands of Catalan separatists calling for the independence of Catalan regions in Spain and France have held a demonstration amid a summit between the heads of the two states in Barcelona.

Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and French President Emmanuel Macron inked a Franco-Spanish friendship treaty in Barcelona on Thursday. 

Pro-independence groups marched on the French Consulate in a public display of discontent. Some clashed with police while trying to reach Sant Jaume Square, where the Catalan regional government is located.

Demonstrators waved pro-independence ‘estelada’ flags, holding signs reading, "Neither Spain, nor France."

The summit came amid a day of widespread strikes on the other side of the Pyrenees against Macron’s bid to increase the minimum retirement age from 62 to 64. Sanchez, as the host, had to endure the noisy rally by Catalan separatists near the meeting venue.

Catalonia launched a failed independence bid in 2017. Carles Puigdemont, the leader of the attempt to separate from Spain, is in self-imposed exile in Belgium to avoid prosecution in Spain. Last week, Spain's Supreme Court dropped sedition charges against him after a reform of the country's penal code abolished the crime. Sedition carried a maximum jail term of 15 years. He still faces charges of disobedience and embezzlement, which carry jail terms of up to eight years.

 


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