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INDEPENDENCE

Interview: Jailed Catalan leader appeals for non-violence at protests

A Catalan pro-independence leader in pre-trial detention for nearly a year has urged separatists to avoid violence during protests planned against a Spanish government meeting in Barcelona on Friday.

Published: 19 December 2018 09:27 CET
Interview: Jailed Catalan leader appeals for non-violence at protests
In this file photo taken on March 23, 2018 Catalan separatist leader Jordi Turull arrives at the Supreme Court in Madrid. Photo: AFP

“I would not like it if people, with their faces covered, demanded my freedom,” Jordi Turull, a former spokesman for the Catalan regional government, told AFP from behind a glass screen at the Lledoners prison some 60 kilometres (40 miles) north of Barcelona.

“We have to do as we have always done, which is to protest peacefully,” added Turull, who has been on a hunger strike for 17 days.   

He is one of nine Catalan separatist leaders awaiting trial in jail over Catalonia's failed independence bid last year.   

In total 18 people will stand trial on charges of rebellion, sedition, misuse of public funds and disobedience.

The trial is likely to start in early 2019  — more than a year after Catalan leaders in the northeastern region attempted to break away from Spain in October 2017 by staging a referendum despite a court ban, and then  proclaiming independence to no avail.

Spain's Supreme Court held a preliminary hearing on Wednesday to decide on its competence to hear the case.   

Turull has shed seven kilos (15 pounds) since he started a hunger strike on December 1. Last week he was transferred to the prison's infirmary.   

The casual sports clothes he wore, which contrasted to the sharp suits he used to wear at press conferences, failed to hide the weight loss.

'Provocation'

The 52-year-old said he was concerned by some recent protests by radical separatists, who have clashed with police.   

“I don't like some of the images I have seen,” he said, citing a demonstration in the city of Girona on December in which 15 police officers were injured as an example.

“This is not our way of doing things,” Turull said. 

Similar scenes could play out again on Friday when Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez holds an cabinet meeting in Barcelona, the capital of Catalonia which is split over the issue of independence.

Pro-independence groups have called on their supporters to take to the streets to protest against the meeting, which coincides with the one-year anniversary of snap polls in Catalonia called by Spain's central government after the region unsuccessfully declared independence.

Separatist parties once again won an absolute majority in the Catalan parliament in the election, even though many candidates were in jail or self-imposed exiled over their role in the failed independence bid.

“Over ten percent of lawmakers elected that day are in jail or in exile. To come on that day is a provocation,” said Turull.

'Dream of tuna can'

He began his hunger strike on December 1 along with another jailed Catalan leader, Jordi Sanchez, the former head of grassroots separatist group ANC, to protest what they say was a Constitutional Court block of their attempted appeal to the European court of human Rights against their provisional detention.

They were joined by two more Catalan leaders at the Lledoners prison two days later.   

“We saw that there was a coordinated action to not allow us to go before European justice…You reach a moment when you have to shake things up because this is normalising a violation of rights,” said Turull.

Turull denied allegations that the aim of the hunger strike is to draw attention away from a wave of protests the Catalan government has faced against austerity measures, or to mask splits within the pro-independence camp.   

He said the hardest part of the hunger strike was the “psychological aspect”.

“I dream of a tuna can,” Turull said, adding that while the hunger strike is open-ended, he promised his family that he would not put his life at risk.   

Turull said he wants to “be strong” for his trial.   

“I look forward to going and showing that the charges are a fabrication,” he said.

BEACHES

Why are Barcelona’s beaches disappearing?

Barcelona's much-loved beaches are losing between six and 10 metres of sand per year, but why is this happening?

Published: 16 June 2021 15:30 CEST
Why are Barcelona's beaches disappearing?
Barceloneta Beach. Photo: Pau BARRENA / AFP

Barcelona may be famed for its beaches and they may be one of its biggest tourist draws, but it hasn’t always been this way.

In fact, Barcelona didn’t used to have any beaches at all, just ports and seaside neighbourhoods. It wasn’t until 1992 when the city held the Olympic Games that these neighbourhoods were demolished and the beaches were created. 

What’s the problem?

Since 2017, the city’s beaches have been losing between six and 10 metres of width per year, according to a recent study by the Área Metropolitana de Barcelona (AMB).

This beach erosion means that every year there is less and less sand for residents and tourists to lie on and enjoy. 

This is not a new problem however and has been going on much longer than four and half years. In 2016, the Barcelona City Council revealed that since 2010 Barceloneta Beach had lost over 15 metres in width, which is equivalent to 28 percent of its surface area.  

In another 2016 report, the regional authorities of Barcelona also showed that its beaches as a whole had lost 17 percent of their total amount of sand during the same time period, the same as five football pitches.

Why is it happening?

The study attributes this to the fact that there have been more storms than normal since 2017, which has prevented the natural recovery of the beaches.

Storm Gloria in January 2020 in particular caused significant damage to the beaches in the area and caused even more sand to be washed away.

In short, most of this is to do with climate change. 

The beaches that have been most affected and have lost the most amount of sand are those in the lower Maresme region and the towns of Masnou and Badalona.

Barcelona beaches being destroyed during a storm. Photo: JOSEP LAGO / AFP

What’s being done about it?

The Barcelona City Council has been continually adding a little sand to its beaches each year and moving it around from areas that have more to areas that have less.

Aitor Rumín, head of the beach management service of the Barcelona Consistory told El Pais last month that “the last major contribution of sand was made by the ministry in 2010. Since then we have only lost sand”.

“It’s survival, but we can’t do much more. The beaches lose 30 cubic meters of sand per year, especially in the southern parts of each of the beaches. The coastline is receding and we have beaches like Mar Bella, Nova Mar Bella and Llevant, where we can’t do anything to regain the sand,” he said.

Badalona Beach. Photo: JOSEP LAGO / AFP

While moving the sand around and adding a little each year may help to cover up the problem in the short term, it’s not really helping solve the problem and a long-term solution needs to be found.

The Área Metropolitana de Barcelona have been trying to stop the beach erosion with their Resilience Plan, which will ask for greater contributions of sand to try and balance out the current losses and divide the beaches up with breakwaters.

In the case of Badalona, it has been proposed that 13,200 cubic metres of sand be added to the beach each year, as well as to rethink the layout of the equipment located on the seafront. The construction of a breakwater on La Mora beach has also been proposed.

In Sant Adrià, the plan is to build another breakwater, as well as to remove the jetty in front of the old industrial areas. The council also hope to add a further 95,000 cubic metres of sand.

It is thought that similar plans may be carried out on Barcelona’s other beaches.

Is this a problem anywhere else in Spain?

Yes, beach erosion is a problem throughout Spain, as well as throughout the world, due to climate change.

Theocharis Plomaritis from the University of Cádiz who was one of the co-authors of the Nature Climate Change study published in March 2020, told El Periodico that by the end of the century the retreat of the beaches in Spain and Southern Europe could be 86 metres, if no measures are taken to contain climate change. 

According to the study, in the best case scenario – with measures to mitigate the effects of climate – the loss of sandy beaches in Spain would be 60 metres and 27 of these metres by 2050.

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