But this week, a spokesman for Torra’s pro-independence party Together for Catalonia played down the importance of the protests and said the solution lay in “fleeing the (Spanish) state.”

“We’re distracting ourselves with things that aren’t essential,” Eduard Pujol said Tuesday in comments that drew criticism.
Doctors and firefighters strike in Catalonia, Spain, over budget cuts, ending with clashes between demonstrators and Mossos d'Esquadra at the doors of Catalan Parliament. Students and teachers start a two-day strike.