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TEHRAN, December 11 -Spain's interior minister said he would send national police to Catalonia if local authorities did not do more to stop protests like the one that shut down major highways over the weekend.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) - Fernando Grande-Marlaska accused the local Catalan police of doing nothing to prevent pro-independence protesters blocking the AP-7 toll road, which runs up Spain's Mediterranean coast, for more than 15 hours on Saturday.
The involvement of national police would be a contentious issue in the northeastern region which has its own administration and where polls suggest almost half the population wants to split away from Spain.
It would also stir memories of Madrid's decision to send in a large contingent of national police in September last year after the Catalan government called an illegal independence referendum.
"Serious disruptions of public order and traffic security, such as those seen in the last few days, need to be dealt with by the regional police," the minister wrote to his regional counterpart in an open letter late on Monday.
"If this does not happen ... the government will order an intervention by the state police," he added.
There was no immediate reaction from the Catalan authorities.
Spain's previous conservative government took control of the region in 2017 when the regional administration unilaterally declared independence following the referendum.
Source: Reuters
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