17.10.2019 - 14:05
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Actualització: 17.10.2019 - 16:05
Thursday brought a fourth day of protests around Catalonia against the Spanish Supreme Court verdict sentencing 9 pro-independence leaders to up to 13 years for sedition, as the pro-independence marches across the country continued for a second day, a number of roads were blocked and students carried out another day of strikes and demonstrations.
These disruptions have led Catalonia’s largest factory, the SEAT car-manufacturing plant in Martorell, to announce it will shut down production on Thursday and Friday as it cannot guarantee the arrival of workers and materials.
Meanwhile, thousands of independence supporters continued the Freedom Marches, with five columns of demonstrators setting out from different Catalan towns on their way towards Barcelona, bringing traffic to a halt on some major highways.
Students occupy the streets
Some of Barcelona’s main avenues in the city center were also closed after another night of unrest in the Catalan capital in which some 400 rubbish containers were burnt, according to the city council.
Also in the Catalan capital, hundreds of university students blocked streets as they began congregating in the morning for a demonstration called at midday by a students’ union in Plaça Universitat square.
In the northern capital of Girona, too, university and secondary school students demonstrated, with hundreds gathered in front of the Catalan government’s headquarters in the city to condemn the jailing of Catalan leaders.
