Night of vandalism and disturbances after the demonstration

BarcelonaThe Mossos d’Esquadra were clear that after the general strike demonstration there would be riots, and that is what ended up happening. The protest closed with several vandalized businesses, many barricades, burned containers, and about twenty people arrested.

When the strike rally had already been called off, more than fifty protesters dressed in black and hooded, some with identical black raincoats and protective goggles that betrayed they were prepared, attacked the Mossos d'Esquadra on Gran Via by throwing fences and stones at them and forced them to retreat. The police counterattack did not stop the riots: the group destroyed several shops on Gran Via and then went down Passeig de Gràcia, where all the shops on the Llobregat sidewalk between Gran Via and Plaça de Catalunya were at the very least vandalized. In some, such as Stradivarius and the Apple Store, at least one looter even entered. The Mossos carried out several charges to disperse them and prevent them from reaching the Raval, where the situation would have been much more complicated, and pushed them along Ronda Universitat and up Carrer Balmes.

After this police strategy, the protesters dispersed, but did not leave. The riots became widespread: lines of burned containers were repeated on several streets: first Pelai, but later Gran Via and Carrer Aribau. This point marked the beginning of an even greater dispersal of the protesters: they spread through several streets of the Eixample, such as Muntaner or Casanova, and some even reached Plaça Espanya. At this moment, several arguments occurred between protesters and neighbors, who criticized them for setting fire to containers.

Also at this moment, an intense task began by plainclothes Mossos agents, known as Fures, who went on to arrest protesters for public disorder and assault on authority. At the time of closing this edition, the toll was more than twenty arrested. In parallel, while the Barcelona Fire Department was extinguishing the burned containers, the Mossos' Brimo vans were roaming the Eixample and the surroundings of Plaça Catalunya to finish dispersing the protesters. Depending on the moment, the agents would get out of the van and make use of short-range foam projectiles.

As initially foreseen, even though the events are very recent, the disturbances are being linked to anarchist groups. At times, it seemed that the Mossos were avoiding hand-to-hand combat with these groups, although police sources specify that at the beginning there was a large mass of people coming from the demonstration, which made the interventions have to be very surgical.

In fact, it was almost instantaneous: from the moment the unions called off the protest, the Mossos began to warn via loudspeaker that they were going to intervene if the projectiles thrown at the police line did not cease. The Mossos suspect that some of those involved sought refuge at the Plaça Catalunya encampment to avoid being arrested. The night ended with dozens of points in the city center with ash on the ground and smoking dumpsters.

The Mossos d'Esquadra pursued the protesters throughout the lower part of Barcelona's Eixample. The vans arrived at full speed, several riot police officers got out and pursued the protesters on foot, and while some continued the pursuit, others got back into the vehicles to continue dispersing them. The goal was to break the rioters into smaller, easier-to-control groups.

The police priority from the moment the protesters were completely dispersed was to make as many arrests as possible. They even set up a detainee reception point on Bailèn Street, a technique they already used during the Blocus disturbances. In fact, there was a moment when several items were thrown at the Mossos from the vicinity of the encampment, which they ended up surrounding at times, as it served as a refuge for many protesters.

At the moment, Mossos sources have confirmed at least thirty people arrested following the incidents, but the operation has not ended and at the time of going to press there were still people in black hoods continuing to cause destruction on the streets of the Eixample. The President of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, lamented the disturbances in a post on X in which he asserts that violence does not represent the people who demonstrated and warns that in Catalonia, "whoever does it, pays for it". He concludes his statement by affirming that "protest is legitimate, violence is not".