Police charge anti-fascist protesters at Diada eve memorial in Barcelona

Standoff at the memorial

On the eve of the Diada on 10 September 2026, tensions escalated in central Barcelona as supporters of the far-right party Aliança Catalana and counter-protesters converged near the Fossar de les Moreres. The memorial site, which holds the communal grave of defenders killed during the 1714 Siege of Barcelona, was booked for a floral offering by Aliança Catalana. The party chartered eight buses to bring supporters from across Catalonia, drawing between 200 and 500 attendees into the square. Outside the perimeter, between 1,000 and 2,000 anti-fascist and pro-independence left-wing demonstrators assembled along Passeig del Born under the coalition Unitat antifeixista per una terra de tothom, which included Arran, Endavant, Alerta Solidària, COS, SEPC, the IAC union, and Top Manta.

Police charges and arrests

The Catalan police, the Mossos d'Esquadra, established a wide security perimeter with more than 20 riot vans to prevent direct clashes between the opposing groups, following similar confrontations at the memorial the previous year. All streets leading into the Fossar were blocked except for a single checkpoint on Carrer de l'Espaseria, while a separate contingent of roughly 100 demonstrators from the Intersindical union gathered nearby on Carrer Argenteria. Around 18:00, officers from the Mobile Brigade (Brimo) launched several baton charges after counter-protesters attempted to push through police lines. Officers confiscated the leading banner of the anti-fascist march, which was subsequently taken by Aliança Catalana supporters. Police made at least five arrests among the counter-demonstrators as several neighbourhood businesses pulled down their shutters.

Speeches and political rivalry

Party leader, Catalan parliament member, and Ripoll mayor Sílvia Orriols arrived in the Born district around 16:50 accompanied by party officials and approximately ten private security guards. After visiting a local cafe and greeting workers in adjacent shops, she entered the Fossar, where the event started behind schedule due to the late arrival of supporters travelling from Lleida. Supporter chants inside the plaza included slogans such as 'Catalunya catalana' alongside symbols featuring the phoenix and the number 33, while Orriols declared to the crowd that they had come to save Catalonia. Addressing the gathering past 18:00, Orriols condemned the leadership of the traditional independence movement.

'Endarrera aquesta gent tan ufana i tan superba', our national anthem says, a vestige of a time when leaders did not sell us out to have their own parliamentary group in Congress, or to keep 200 positions in the Catalan administration. Those times must return.

Party representative Jordi Aragonès also spoke before the assembly concluded. Meanwhile, counter-demonstrators mounted a sound truck on Passeig del Born at around 19:00, chanting 'no one is illegal' and addressing the crowd through loudspeakers to denounce xenophobic rhetoric.

We call to show that there is a majority that does not accept the retrograde and closed Catalanness that the far right uses to divide us.