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Hundreds of people protested in front of local offices of the Catalan Socialist party (PSC) in Catalan cities on Saturday evening, expressing their opposition to the suspension of the four Catalan political prisoners from their positions as recently-elected deputies to the Spanish Congress.

The protests, called by pro-independence civil group ANC, took place under the slogan 'Democracy or violation of rights?' and denounced the decision made on Friday by the Congress's procedural board to suspend Oriol Junqueras, Jordi Turull, Josep Rull and Jordi Sànchez from their positions in the Spanish lower house.

In Barcelona, around a hundred people protested outside the PSC headquarters in Carrer Pallars. Among the placards on display were slogans such as "PSC/PSOE you are shameless!" and "Our votes must not be suspended!".

It was a similar story in Girona, where more than three hundred protesters gathered outside the Socialist headquarters. 

In Lleida the protest was in silence, outside the local PSC office in Avinguda Blondel.

Calls for protest were shared by the CDR (Committees for Defence of the Republic) protest groups as well as other ANC sections. "We can't remain silent in the face of this violation of our fundamental rights as voters" was a sentiment expressed on Twitter. The PSC was denounced for its "approach", which claims to be "open to dialogue" but in fact "continues arm-in-arm with the PP and Cs".