NAZI-saluting fascists have clashed with baton-wielding police in Barcelona – as a pro-union protest descended into violence.
Organisers of the march claim over one million people took part in the protest today in the Catalan capital as a reaction against the region’s controversial declaration of independence on Friday.
But footage shows demonstrators draped in Spanish flags fighting with cops before some fascist supporters give a Nazi salute at the end of the shocking clip.
Other footage from Madrid shows protestors also giving the fascist salute while chanting “Viva Franco” referencing the country’s former dictator General Franco.
The crowds in both cities have been chanting for Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont to be jailed for declaring independence.
Rpoerts suggest that hundreds of thousands of people took part in the march in Barcelona today despite organisers claims over one million took to the streets.
The vast crowds could be heard chanting “this time we are going to vote” in reference to the regional election on December 21 which have been called by Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.
The Catalan parliament was also dissolved yesterday by Rajoy and the elections in December will result in a new regional government being formed.
Banners, placards as well as the flags of both Catalonia, Spain, and the EU were on display in Barcelona as marchers condemned the decision taken by the regional parliament.
Yesterday the Catalan president Carles Puigdemont led a vote to confirm the region of 7.5 million people a new republic following an illegal referendum held earlier this month.
Approximately 40 minutes after the declaration was made the Spanish prime minister sacked Puigdemont and imposed direct rule over the region handing power to his deputy.
Rajoy used legal powers granted by the Spanish constitution that had never been used before in the 40 years the country has been a democracy.
Tens of thousands of protesters chanted “Viva Espana” as they made their way through the city’s streets in a sea of red-and-yellow Spanish flags.
Several placards reading “De Todos” (It belongs to all of us) while a huge banner read “We are all Catalonia”.
Chants of “Prison for Puigdemont” and “Long live Spain” were also heard.
Marina Fernandez, a 19-year-old student from Girona, a separatist stronghold, said: “I am enraged about what they are doing to the country that my grandparents built.”
Silvia Alarcon, a 35-year-old office worker, said the separatists “live in a parallel world, a little surreal. I am angry that they claim to speak for all Catalans when they do not.”
She said that she cannot speak out for Spanish unity in her hometown or “leave my house with the Spanish flag”.
Ines Arramadas, leader of the main opposition party in the region, told journalists at the march that a majority of the region’s citizens wanted to “rescue our future”.
She said: “Today the silenced majority of Catalonia returns to the streets. It once again shows, with dignity and respect, that the majority of Catalans feel Catalan, Spanish and European.”
The independence bid has plunged Spain into its worst political crisis since the death of dictator General Franco and raised alarm in the rest of Europe.
The Spanish government were universally criticised for their handling of the referendum vote which they tried to prevent from happening using riot police bussed in from the rest of the country.
Several pictures and videos showed blooded citizens, including many of the elderly who had tried to vote when the polls opened that morning, being forcibly pulled out of polling stations.
Police could be seen firing plastic bullets and striking voters with batons as well as one video showing an officer stamping on a person sitting on the floor.
Oriol Junqueras, the former deputy president of the region, wrote in a local newspaper published today: “The president of the country is and will remain Carles Puigdemont.”
He used the word “country2 to refer to Catalonia and signed off the column as the “vice president”.
He added: “We cannot recognise the coup d’etat against Catalonia, nor any of the anti-democratic decisions that [Rajoy’s political party] is adopting by remote control from Madrid.”
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