The Councilor of Interior and Public Safety of the Generalitat, Núria Parlon, has indicated that the Department contemplates the possibility that episodes of violence in Barcelona may be repeated next Saturday, October 31, and has stressed that all available resources will be activated to try to avoid a scenario similar to that of last weekend.
Parlon appeared this Wednesday before the Interior Committee of the Parlament, accompanied by the general director of the Mossos d'Esquadra, Ferran López, and the chief commissioner of the force, Sílvia Catà. Both commanders have offered details about the serious unrest on Saturday in Barcelona, which left 133 people arrested, 85 of them minors, in addition to numerous looted businesses and damage to street furniture.
The councilor has attributed what happened to a "new phenomenon" of youth violence, carried out by young people who, under the cover of supposed student and social mobilizations to demand educational improvements, took the opportunity to go out into the street to commit crimes and steal from various establishments.
For her part, Catà has pointed out that the last comparable episode in terms of scale and characteristics was the protests linked to rapper Pablo Hasél in February 2021, when 17 minors were arrested, a figure that on this occasion has multiplied by 5.
POLICE INVESTIGATION UNDERWAY
Regarding the new call circulated for this Saturday through social media, Catà has acknowledged concern within the force, although she has specified that, of all the protests monitored by the Comissaria General d'Informació, this is the only one that would be being driven by some external actor.
She has emphasized that the police investigation remains open and that work is being done to identify who or what is behind these youth mobilizations, organized above all through mass messaging platforms. In this context, Catà has detailed that 2 Telegram channels have already been shut down that were inciting new disturbances on the 31st.
This Tuesday, the Mossos d'Esquadra requested the collaboration of the Center for Intelligence against Terrorism and Organized Crime (CITCO), under the Ministry of the Interior, with the aim of blocking the creation of new groups in messaging applications that may serve to call more young people and promote disturbances.
The chief commissioner has indicated that this is one of the 3 lines of work open, together with the ongoing criminal investigation and the analysis of the 300 identifications carried out on Saturday, "key information", according to Parlon, which will make it possible to obtain more data on those involved in the incidents and advance in the clarification of the facts.
At the same time, Catà has wanted to send a message of calm to the population in the face of possible new calls: "We are not facing a generalized threat to public safety nor an extensive phenomenon among youth", he stated.
POLICE DEPLOYMENT
As for last Saturday's police deployment, the head of the force has denied that it "caught the Mossos d'Esquadra by surprise". He detailed that in the surroundings of plaza Catalunya more than 30 public order units were already operating to saturate the area and that at the CECOR on Calle Lleida a prior device had been activated.
"We did not get the degree of violence we found on Saturday, apparently disorganized", López acknowledged, who has insisted that the young people were not pursuing any other purpose than "to smash and loot".
He also advanced that there will be new arrests that will add to the 133 arrests carried out this weekend, with an average age of 19 years, as he specified.
(MORE TO COME)