Protests have been held in towns all over Catalonia - and in one small town in particular - this Thursday evening to demand the liberation of imprisoned Catalan vice president Oriol Junqueras. The demonstrations, called by the pro-independence groups Catalan National Assembly (ANC) and Òmnium Cultural, took place in front of town councils around Catalonia, but a special gathering took place in Sant Vicenç del Horts, the locality on the outskirts of Barcelona where Junqueras lives and of which he was mayor between 2011 and 2015. Catalan political and social leaders such as Jordi Turull, Joan Tardà, Agustí Alcoberro and Marcel Mauri were among the many who gathered in Junqueras's hometown.
Som a Sant Vicenç dels Horts per demanar la llibertat de l'Oriol i els presos polítics #usvolemacasa #LlibertatPresosPolitics pic.twitter.com/k6UUWVpPa6
— Cultural Òmnium (@omnium) 4 of January 2018
Translation: We are at Sant Vicenç dels Horts to demand freedom for Oriol and the political prisoners. #WeWantYouHome
It is now more than two months since Junqueras was imprisoned, as a speaker noted to the gathering of around a thousand people at Sant Vicenç dels Horts. The town's mayor, Maite Aymerich, told those assembled that "it is very easy" to resolve the court appeal made on Thursday for his freedom. "Oriol will not attempt to flee, he will not destroy evidence which does not exist, nor will he repeat any offence", she noted. In turn, the vice presidents of Òmnium and the ANC commented that dialogue is "the only way to solve the political conflict", affirming that the Spanish state "has lost its credibility".
@MaiteAymerich No ens acostumarem mai a tenir gent a la presó. No és normal. No renunciarem a les nostees idees pacífiques i sortirem els cops que faci falta. L'estat actua de forma repressiva i no ho podem normalitzar. #Llibertat pic.twitter.com/UqBIs3pj27
— National assembly (@assemblea) 4 of January 2018
Translation: Maite Aymerich: "We will never become accustomed to having people in prison. It is not normal. We will not give up our pacifist ideas and we will come out and protest as many times as necessary. The state is using repression and we can't treat it as normality.
Most of those who attended the protests wore yellow in some form - caps, scarves, pins or even flowers - to show solidarity with the political prisoners, and carried placards calling for "Freedom for political prisoners" - as in the many previous protests called for the same reason.
The protests mentioned not only Junqueras by name, but also focused on the other three Catalan political figures held in Spanish prisons: government minister Joaquim Forn, MP-elect Jordi Sànchez, and Òmnium president Jordi Cuixart. Sànchez and Cuixart have been incarcerated at the Soto del Real jail since 16th October, accused of rebellion and sedition, while Junqueras and Forn have been held in Estremera prison since 2nd November, accused of these same offences, as well as misuse of public funds.