Catalan separatists hit streets ahead of Madrid talks

Thousands of Catalan separatists thronged the streets of Barcelona on Saturday in a test of their strength ahead of fresh negotiations with Spain's government.

The protest coincides with Catalonia's national day, or "Diada", which commemorates the 1714 fall of Barcelona in the War of the Spanish Succession and the region's subsequent loss of institutions.

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As in other years, the march began at 17:14 (1514 GMT) -- a nod to the year 1714. The slogan this year is: "We will fight for independence and win."

At its peak in 2014, the annual demonstration brought an estimated 1.8 million people onto the streets. Saturday saw as many as 400,000 answer the call to turn out by early evening, according to organisers -- though regional police put the figure at 108,000.

While Catalonia was the epicentre in July of a fresh wave of Covid-19 infections, the situation has since improved and a ban on gatherings of more than 10 people was recently lifted.

Jordi Cuixart, the leader of grassroots separatist movement Omnium Cultural, said he hoped to "bring hundreds of thousands of people onto the streets" this year to "prove once again that our movement is more alive than ever".

But much has changed since the frenetic autumn of 2017 when Catalonia's bid to break away from Spain triggered the country's worst political crisis in decades going back to the end of the Franco dictatorship.

Leaders of the wealthy northeastern region, which has a population of 7.8 million, defied a government ban to organise a secession referendum and then issued a short-lived declaration of independence.

Those behind the move were arrested, tried and sentenced to long jail terms by Spain's top court, while others fled abroad to avoid prosecution, leaving the movement sharply at odds over how to move forward.