Hundreds of police officers have been kicked out of Catalonia hotels after some used batons to attack protesters demonstrating about brutal tactics used during Sunday’s referendum vote.
The owner of the three-star Hotel Vila in the seaside resort of Calella just north of Barcelona confirmed today he had asked around 100 Civil Guards staying at the establishment to leave.
David Coll said he had taken his decision after confrontations between officers and locals in the early hours of yesterday morning.
Civil Guards sleeping at the hotel ended up using batons to try to disperse crowds who had gathered outside to shout insults after the police brutality witnessed at several polling stations during Sunday’s illegal Catalan independence referendum.
Hundreds of police officers have been kicked out of Catalonia hotels after some used batons to attack protesters demonstrating about brutal tactics used during Sunday’s referendum vote. Police are pictured at a separate hotel in Pineda de Mar north of Barcelona as a protest was taking place outside
Noisy protests have taken place outside other establishments police were staying at including in the Catalan city of Lleida and towns of Reus and Pineda de Mar (pictured in the early hours of this morning)
A lawyer acting for the officers has pledged legal action against the hotel owner and local council he claimed had pressured him into serving the expulsion order, a claim town hall chiefs have angrily denied.
Around 300 more officers staying in two others hotels in the seaside town are also said to have been asked to leave, with noisy protests outside other establishments police were staying at being reported in the Catalan city of Lleida and towns of Reus and Pineda de Mar.
Regional Mossos d’Esquadra officers, filmed in angry confrontations with Civil Guards outside a polling station on Sunday over their response to citizens trying to cast their vote, were brought in to try to restore order.
National Police officers gesture as they arrive at their hotel while people protest outside in Pineda de Mar north of Barcelona, this morning
It was not immediately clear where the police and Civil Guards staying at the hotels would be housed, although one of three ferries in the ports of Tarragona and Barcelona where nearly 3,000 anti-riot police are staying has been put forward as an option. Police are pictured carrying cheering and waving Spanish flags at a hotel in Pineda de Mar this morning
Police have claimed on social media that waiters at some of the hotels they were staying at called in sick after being pressured to skip work, prompting staff shortages.
They also said some distributors had cut food supplies to the hotels ‘off their own backs or because they were being pressured.’
One message, said to be circulating on a closed police WhatsApp group but flagged up by several Spanish newspapers, said: ‘The director of the hotel I was staying at received several calls, one of them saying that they were going to burn it down, others threatening to kill his parents and reminding him that he had young children.’
It was not immediately clear where the police and Civil Guards staying at the hotels would be housed, although one of three ferries in the ports of Tarragona and Barcelona where nearly 3,000 anti-riot police are staying has been put forward as an option.
A strike has been called in Catalonia today in response to Sunday’s police violence by new group La Taula per la Democracia, Catalan for ‘Table for Democracy’
A strike has been called in Catalonia today in response to Sunday’s police violence by new group La Taula per la Democracia, Catalan for ‘Table for Democracy.’
The organisation, which includes unions and the pro-independence Catalan National Assembly movement, has been called a ‘nation’s stoppage.’
The strike is expected to impact on public transport as well as other services including health centres and supermarkets, with one major food store announcing it will close its doors between 2pm and 4pm for those workers who want to take part in the stoppage.
The Catalan government has promised employees it will not dock their wages if they join the strike.