Three arrested, aggression against a photographer and police charges at the Aliança Catalana event at the Fossar

BarcelonaAliança Catalana was able to hold the floral offering at the Fossar de les Moreres normally last year. About thirty militants from Arran tried to access the historic site to boycott the event, but the Mossos d'Esquadra prevented them from doing so. This Diada, however, things have not been so calm.

The pro-independence left, together with other anti-fascist and social groups, had marked this day on their agenda and about three thousand people, mostly young, have tried to boycott the event. Aliança Catalana had also organized eight coaches that have picked up militants and supporters from all over the country to make a new show of strength, but they have gathered little more than 300 people.

The tension did not take long to explode. Around 5:45 p.m., the Mossos removed one of the banners carried by the pro-independence left protesters who were at the end of the Passeig del Born, near the entrance to the Fossar, which caused pushing and some baton blows. It was not the only charge by the riot police, who charged several times after splitting the anti-fascists into two blocks for more than three hours.

Although the police had cordoned off the Fossar so that protesters could not access it, three anti-fascists snuck in by posing as members, and when the leader of Aliança Catalana, Sílvia Orriols, was giving her speech, they threw paint at the far-right supporters, but they were arrested by the Catalan police. The far-right members tried to attack them, but the police prevented them from doing so.

The Mossos have confirmed the arrest of three anti-fascist protesters during the incidents and five others under investigation for public disorder. Precisely during the arrest of one of them, ACN photographer Jordi Borràs reported an assault by a group of ultra-fans linked to the Boixos Nois who were wearing blue hats and who had offered in the days prior to act as security for the event. While he was photographing the arrest, as Borràs explained to ARA, a Brimo officer pushed himtowards where this group of Boixos Nois was located. "I fell because of the pushing and they kicked me twice, and another one aimed at my face missed me by a miracle". The assault has already been reported by the Ramon Barnils Journalists Group, which has demanded explanations from the Catalan police.

Heated atmosphere hours earlier

In the hours leading up to it, the atmosphere was already heating up on both sides, precisely due to the presence of this group of ultras linked to the Boixos and the xenophobic and now-defunct Catalan National Unity. "I want to calm things down because they say that Aliança Catalana has surrounded itself with ultras to look for a fight," Orriols had denounced, who saw it as "a trap" by the extreme left so that there would be a "pitched battle at the Fossar" and they would be accused of these violent acts. "We are for common sense and order," she wanted to make clear, although the presence of these ultras, who have assaulted Borràs, calls it into question. "If they come to attack us, we will pin them to the ground until the Mossos come and identify them," she had said in a video she posted on X.

At the same time, in recent days Orriols has opened a new front of controversy against Lluís Llach. She did so after a podcast close to the pro-independence left, L'Arrabassada, recovered statements by Llach, from when he was president of the ANC, saying that he regretted that "Catalanism has fallen into the trap of fascism and racism". "What Lluís Llach should do is give explanations for what he was doing in Senegal. Because perhaps the racist little white man who takes advantage of the vulnerable is him," Orriols let out via X, despite the fact that there is no accusation or complaint against the singer-songwriter, who cooperates with various humanitarian projects in Senegal.