The spokesperson for the Catalan government, Elsa Artadi, has said that, in light of the results of today's Spanish cabinet meeting, her government doesn't understand why they held it in Barcelona. As for the small number of violent incidents seen in the streets, she suggested, among other reasons, the presence of people infiltrating the movement was to blame.
In a press conference called to evaluate the meeting, the minister said that they had seen no "great announcements", so they didn't understand the need to hold the meeting in the centre of Barcelona with the resulting difficulties for members of the public.
Artadi thanked the vast majority of protesters for their behaviour and the public for the understanding of the consequences of the meeting, including roads closed by police in the heart of the city.
As for the incidents seen, she said that 12 people have been arrested and 18 Mossos (Catalan police) officers have been injured. She said that the government condemns any violent action, as it does any other day of the year. She also praised the fact that, in some of the cases, it was fellow demonstrators who isolated the violent individuals.
She said that, after cases like Tamara Carrasco, there are those who are scared to go to demonstrations with their faces covered and that, when there are people with their faces covered "they aren't always independence supporters, they aren't always people who want to act peacefully". "Today, infiltrated people have been seen who don't represent the independence movement," she said.
When breaking down the agreements from today's meeting that affect Catalonia, she said that Barcelona-El Prat airport has problems to solve, "but in no case was its name [one of them]". The Spanish cabinet today made the surprise announcement it will rename the airport in honour of Josep Tarradellas, who returned from exile as the first president of Catalonia after the end of the Franco regime.
Another of the announcements was the political recognition of Catalan president Lluís Companys, executed by the Franco regime. Artadi noted this has no legal effect and, in any case, was already done in 2009.
As for the 112 million euros (£101 million; $128 million) in infrastructure investment for Catalonia, she says it is for projects which have already been budgeted for, some of them more than ten years ago, which have repeatedly fallen through.
"Coming to Barcelona to change the name of the airport, to repeat a sentence already said in 2009 and to promise infrastructure which hasn't been being implemented for ten years... maybe it wasn't necessary to come to Barcelona with the cost that's involved, the travel, the security measures... To do that, it wasn't necessary to give it a great importance as they have done. You can't hope that aesthetic measures have a real value. They don't have it," she concluded.
As for the statement the two governments issued yesterday, and whether it represents the Catalan government renouncing the unilateral path to independence, Artadi said that dialogue is the priority, but repeated that they aren't counting out "any mechanism, as long as it's democratic and non-violent".