11 Sep, 2020 @ 17:01
1 min read

MISSING CROWDS: Catalonia’s national day passes quietly as COVID-19 regulations halt protest rallies

Catalan Flag

CORONAVIRUS has claimed another victim – Catalonia’s national day.

Normally separatists use September 11 as an opportunity for mass rallies and protests calling for independence from Spain.

But this year large gatherings have been banned due to the coronavirus pandemic. Catalonia has seen a big increase in cases over the past few days.

Catalan Flag

Dubbed the ‘Diada’, the annual event marks the day when Barcelona fell to Spain in 1714 and attracts crowds of around a million people.

This year the streets have remained quiet as the region struggles to contain the virus.

Organisers have been forced to cancel the traditional large-scale gatherings in Barcelona in favour of small events across Catalonia.

More militant separatists made their mark instead with multiple acts o sabotage.

The AVE high speed train service to France was affected for several hours after burning tyres were left on the tracks.

This was the first Diada since nine separatist leaders were given lengthy jail terms following a declaration of independence ‘referendum’, and was expected to see large rallies in their support.

Dilip Kuner

Dilip Kuner is a NCTJ-trained journalist whose first job was on the Folkestone Herald as a trainee in 1988.
He worked up the ladder to be chief reporter and sub editor on the Hastings Observer and later news editor on the Bridlington Free Press.
At the time of the first Gulf War he started working for the Sunday Mirror, covering news stories as diverse as Mick Jagger’s wedding to Jerry Hall (a scoop gleaned at the bar at Heathrow Airport) to massive rent rises at the ‘feudal village’ of Princess Diana’s childhood home of Althorp Park.
In 1994 he decided to move to Spain with his girlfriend (now wife) and brought up three children here.
He initially worked in restaurants with his father, before rejoining the media world in 2013, working in the local press before becoming a copywriter for international firms including Accenture, as well as within a well-known local marketing agency.
He joined the Olive Press as a self-employed journalist during the pandemic lock-down, becoming news editor a few months later.
Since then he has overseen the news desk and production of all six print editions of the Olive Press and had stories published in UK national newspapers and appeared on Sky News.

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