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Catalan separatists try to sabotage Spain’s main cycling race with oil

Spanish police said Tuesday they had arrested four men suspected of plotting to sabotage the Vuelta a España by pouring oil on a stretch of highway the cyclists were due to use.

Published: 29 August 2023 14:20 CEST
Catalan separatists try to sabotage Spain's main cycling race with oil
Cyclists ride at the start of the second stage of the 2023 La Vuelta cycling tour of Spain, a 181,8 km race from Mataró to Barcelona, on August 27th 2023. (Photo by Pau BARRENA / AFP)

Officers detained the four on Saturday in a wooded area near the town of Suria in the north-eastern region of Catalonia just as they prepared to release 400 litres (88 gallons) of “a liquid similar to motor oil” from two drums onto the road, Spain’s National Police said in a statement.

The drums and a hose that stretched from them to the highway “were hidden amongst the vegetation, making it difficult to detect,” the statement added.

The third stage of the Vuelta on Monday — a 158.5-kilometre (98.5-mile) ride from Suria to Arinsal in Andorra — included that stretch of the highway.

It was won by reigning champion Remco Evenepoel of Belgium.

The four suspects are supporters of Catalan independence, according to far-left Catalan pro-independence group Alerta Solidaria which fiercely opposes the passage of the Vuelta through the region, calling it “colonialist”.

They have been charged with membership in a criminal group, public disorder and environmental offences.

The four appeared before a court on Monday in Solsana which released them but banned them from going withing 500 metres of roads along which the cycle race was to pass as it goes through Catalonia, their lawyer Eva Pous told Catalan media.

Along with the Tour de France and the Giro d’Italia, the Vuelta is one of cycling’s prestigious Grand Tours.

This is the 78th edition of the race and ends in Madrid on September 17 after 21 stages and 3,153.8 kilometres.

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POLITICS

Socialist win in Catalan election ‘ends decade of division’: Spain’s PM

Spain's leader Pedro Sánchez said Thursday his Socialist party's success in the Catalan elections ended a "decade of division" in the wealthy northeastern region, long governed by separatists.

Published: 16 May 2024 17:16 CEST
Socialist win in Catalan election 'ends decade of division': Spain's PM

“The Catalan Socialist party’s victory… ends a decade of division and resentment within Catalan society and will doubtlessly open a new era of understanding and coexistence,” the prime minister said in his first remarks since Sunday’s election.

The Socialists coming top in the vote was a blow for the Catalan separatist parties which lost their governing majority in the region’s parliament that they have dominated for the past decade.

Since becoming premier some nine months after the botched independence bid of October 2017, Sánchez has adopted a policy of “reengagement” with the wealthy northeastern region to “heal the wounds” opened by the crisis.

In 2021, he pardoned the separatists jailed over the secession bid and has pushed through an amnesty bill for those still wanted by the justice system in exchange for key separatist backing that let him secure a new term in office.

That bill is due to become law in the coming weeks which will allow Carles Puigdemont – the Catalan leader who led the secession bid then fled Spain to avoid prosecution – to finally return home.

Despite Sunday’s result, in which the separatist parties secured 59 of the parliament’s 135 seats, Puigdemont – whose hardline JxCat party came second – said he would seek to build a ruling coalition.

READ MORE: Catalan separatist kingpin refuses to give up on ruling despite ‘pro-Spain win’

“We have an opportunity and we will make the most of it,” he said in the southern French town of Perpignan.

ERC, JxCat’s more moderate separatist rival, lost a lot of support in Sunday’s vote, triggering a crisis within the party.

Even so, it is likely to play a key role in Puigdemont’s coalition-building efforts as well as those of the Catalan Socialists, who won with 42 seats — also a long way from the 68 mandates required to rule.

Analysts say the most likely option would see the Socialists allying with the radical left party Comuns Sumar, which won six seats, and ERC, which won 20, giving it exactly 68.

READ ALSO: Which Catalans want independence from Spain?

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