About a million protesters rallied along Barcelona’s main street to demand independence from the Spanish government for the Catalonia Region on Tuesday, according to police.
Protesters waving Catalan flags and wearing pink shirts with the slogan “Let’s make the Catalan Republic” turned the city’s Diagonal Avenue into a sea of pink.
Protesters fell silent at 5:14 p.m. to commemorate the fall of Barcelona to Spain during the Spanish Wars of Succession. On a 24-hour clock, 5:14 is 1714, the year of the historic defeat.
Regional leader Quim Torra encouraged people earlier this week to march on the region’s national holiday to protest the imprisonment of separatist leaders who implemented a secession referendum last October that led the regional parliament to declare independence a year ago.
Spain has remained in control of the wealthy northwestern region despite the declaration, prosecuting and imprisoning many of the political figures that made it happen.
