Protestors filled the streets of Barcelona on October 13, 2019. Photo by Isha Mahajan.
The past few weeks have seen Barcelona consumed by protests, frustrated and furious pro-independence Catalans taking to the streets to show their disquiet at the recent Supreme Court ruling which saw the leaders of the independence movement sentenced to up to 13 years in prison.
Unless you’ve been following very closely, the trial probably seemed pretty difficult to decipher. But the protests that have engulfed Barcelona—and for a few days its airport—have been much more visceral. Smoke billowed above Barcelona’s streets as bins and newspaper kiosks were set alight, while streets were carved up to launch at riot police officers, who returned fire with baton charges and rubber bullets.
It’s been a dramatic fortnight, and one which has increased polarization over the Catalan independence question. We spoke to Stephen Burgen, a British writer, journalist and translator based in Barcelona, who has been covering the independence crisis for The Guardian and Observer newspapers in the UK for the past nine years, to gain some further insight into the trial and the protests that have followed.
We also spoke with Antoni Raja Vich, a professor of social sciences and humanities at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, to learn more about the roots of the conflict, and how the question of Catalan identity has played such a big part in the entire independence debate.
The rest of the podcast is made up of recordings and interviews done in the streets admid the protests and during the carnage that followed in the evenings. Thanks to all those who spoke to us for this podcast; we hope it will all shed a little light on the latest episode of the biggest constitutional crisis that Spain has faced in recent memory.
You can read Stephen Burgen’s reporting on Catalan Independence for The Guardian here, or follow him on Twitter at @stephenburgen
Listen to more of our podcast episodes here.
The music on this episode is “Inspire,” “Artifact” and “Lightless Dawn” by Kevin MacLeod from https://filmmusic.io License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Harry Stott.
Harry Stott is a regular contributor to the Barcelona Metropolitan covering Brexit, local political and social issues as well as the music scene. He recently received a B.A. in music from the University of Leeds, and now writes and produces radio content for a number of organizations in Barcelona and beyond.