Spanish king booed in visit by Catalan massive protest

Large numbers of Barcelona's pots and pans gave a metallic banging on Sunday night as well as Monday afternoon, in a protest aimed at Spanish so calles king Philip V, Franco's heir, on the city's Diagonal Avenue, which was blocked in both directions for two hours. A pot-bashing demonstration called by a total of five different pro-independence groups brought around ten thousand people. In the midst of extraordinary secrecy, there was no official confirmation that Felipe had arrived, but this certainly didn't inhibit the protesters.

The area was heavily protest-proofed : the lateral lanes of the Diagonal blocked with barrier fences and surrounded by Mossos d'Esquadra vans, with a police helicopter hovering over the area. Protesters chanted slogans against the Bourbon king, banged pots, and held up anti-monarchic banners and pro-independence stared flags.One of those present at the protest was Roger Español, who lost sight in one eye due to a rubber bullet fired by Spanish police on the 2017 referendum day. He is standing as a JxCat (Together for Catalonia) party candidate for the Senate in next weekend's election. There were similar protests in Granollers, Lleida or Mataró.