Pro-unity supporters shouted ‘Dictators out’ as they called for unity as Madrid imposed direct rule on the region.
Carrying Spanish flags, Barcelona has been transformed into a sea of red and yellow as Spain is plunged into its worst constitutional crisis in decades.
Spanish Partido Popular (PP – People’s Party) leader Xavier Garcia Albiol greeted protesters.
Sacked Catalonia president Carles Puigdemont on Saturday called for peaceful “democratic opposition” to the central government’s takeover of the region following its unilateral declaration of independence from Spain.
Mr Puigdemont, whose regional government was dismissed by Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy on Friday, accused Madrid of “premeditated aggression” against the will of the Catalans.
Mr Rajoy removed Mr Puigdemont, took over the administration of the autonomous region and called a new election after Catalonia’s parliament declared itself an independent nation on Friday.
Madrid has called for elections on December 21 as Spain takes control of Catalonia.
Catalan independence parties are seen as losing their parliamentary majority in an election, according to a poll published on Sunday, though the wafer-thin margin between the two sides predicts a hard-fought campaign to December’s ballot.
The poll was taken from last Monday to Thursday, just as Spain’s central government was preparing to take control of the restive region, which then made a unilateral declaration of independence on Friday.
Pro-independence parties were seen as taking 42.5 percent of the vote while anti-independence parties would win 43.4 percent, according to the poll of some 1,000 people surveyed by Sigma Dos and published in the anti-independence newspaper El Mundo.
European countries, the United States and Mexico have rejected the Catalan declaration and expressed support for Spain’s unity.
Mr Puigdemont signed the statement as President of Catalonia, demonstrating he did not accept his ousting.
The secessionists say a referendum on Oct. 1 gave them a mandate for independence. However, less than half of eligible voters turned out for the ballot, which Madrid declared illegal and tried to stop.
Opinion polls show that more than half of the 5.3 million people eligible to vote in the wealthy northeastern region, which is already autonomous, do not want to break from Spain.
But emotions are running high and the next few days will be tricky for Madrid as it embarks on enforcing direct rule.
Government buildings, the headquarters of national political parties, ports, airports, courts, and the Bank of Spain were being guarded, the Interior Ministry said. Units of the regional force could be replaced if events made that necessary.
Catalonia’s police force told its officers to stay neutral, a step towards averting possible conflict following doubts over how the Mossos d’Esquadra, as they are called, would respond if ordered to evict Puigdemont and his government.
The force is riven by distrust between those for and against independence and also estranged from Spain’s national police forces, Mossos and national officers have told Reuters. Some Catalan officers stood between national police and those trying to vote during the referendum.
In Barcelona, thousands of independence supporters packed the Sant Jaume Square in front of the regional headquarters on Friday night, waving Catalan flags and singing traditional songs in the Catalan language as bands played. But there was no trouble overnight and the streets were quiet on Saturday.
The main secessionist group, the Catalan National Assembly, has urged civil servants not to follow orders from the Spanish government and to mount “peaceful resistance” while a pro-independence trade union, the CSC, called a strike.
This is a breaking story. More to follow…