Latest news with #Mossos
Telegraph
15-05-2025
- Telegraph
Watch: Car ploughs into football fans in Barcelona
Thirteen people were injured after a car slammed into a massed crowd of football fans near a stadium in Barcelona on Thursday night. The incident occurred minutes before the start of the La Liga match between Espanyol and FC Barcelona, a city derby played at the former's RCDE Stadium in the Cornellá area of Barcelona. Eye witnesses told local media that at around 8.30pm a white Peugeot, whose driver found themselves in an area meant to be closed off to traffic due to the presence of thousands of football fans, drove into a crowd. The driver is reported to be a woman, who has been arrested. According to witnesses, some fans remonstrated against the presence of a car in the prohibited area, at which point the driver is reported to have lost control of the vehicle and hit several fans as she drove forward and in reverse in an attempt to get free of the crowd. Some of those hit were reportedly dragged along for several metres. No one reported to be in a life-threatening condition Anxious moments followed the incident during which officers from the Catalan Mossos d'Esquadra police force attended to injured individuals and sought to calm the situation amid fears that that it had been a deliberate act of ramming. Ten ambulances were dispatched to the scene and treated the injured on the spot. According to the initial statement from the security forces, nine people suffered minor injuries, with four suffering more serious injuries. In a statement posted on X by the Mossos police force, five people were still being treated two hours after the incident, but none were reported to be in a life-threatening condition. Police have opened an investigation to determine what happened, although in their initial assessment they classified the incident it as an accident. Police sources told the La Vanguardia newspaper that the driver of the vehicle, reported to be a woman of between 45 and 55 years of age, had no criminal record. She faces probable charges of reckless driving and causing injury. The driver was also treated by medical services for shock. Inside Espanyol's stadium, play was briefly suspended after an announcement was made seven minutes into the match regarding the incident. But the referee, after consulting with the stadium manager, decided that the match would continue. Some Espanyol fans protested that the match should be suspended. Barcelona won the match 2-0, meaning they are this season's La Liga champions, ahead of rivals Real Madrid in second place.
Local Spain
06-03-2025
- Politics
- Local Spain
TIE cards, Catalan lessons and deportations: Catalonia's new immigration powers
This week the Spanish government reached a deal with Catalan separatists to give greater migration controls to the northern region. The agreement will include expanded powers for Catalan police in border controls, migrant detention centres and residency permits, among other measures. The law still requires full ratification in the Spanish Congress, which means the handover of immigration responsibilities to Catalonia is still far from certain. For supporters of the Socialist-headed national government, this represents a functioning state delegating powers. Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, Elma Saiz, said this week that 'border control is not being ceded. The Mossos [Catalonia's regional police force] will be present and will act in collaboration with the rest of the state security forces. And that is a sign that the state is functioning.' For critics, however, the move is a further concession from Madrid to separatists propping up Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez's fragile coalition in Congress. The transfer of immigration powers fulfils another major demand of pro-independence party Junts per Catalunya. Celebrating the agreement as a step on the way to independence, exiled Junts party leader Carles Puigdemont said from Brussels: "Our political system and our institutional system will manage a power that only states exercise.' Alberto Núñez Feijóo, leader of the opposition centre-right Partido Popular, described the deal as an "unprecedented humiliation" for Spain that serves to "widen inequality between Spaniards." Far-left Podemos, the former junior coalition partner in government, has also attacked the deal and raised doubts about whether its deputies will support it in a vote. It should be noted here that despite their outsized influence in the national Congress, in particular their ability to essentially block government legislation and, neither of Catalonia's two major separatist parties (Junts and the left-wing Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya) are in power in the Generalitat. In August 2024 the Catalan Socialists won regional elections and removed the independence majority, ending years of separatist dominance and, according to some, finally moving on from the independence Procés. That is to say, despite the granting of these bolstered immigration powers, they will, for now, be implemented by a non-separatist Generalitat. So what immigration powers could Catalonia gain? Border controls One of the headline measures in the deal is that Mossos d'Esquadra will partly take power over border and security controls in airports and ports in the region. As Saiz was keen to highlight, this will be done in coordination with Spain's national police body, so is therefore not a total transfer of powers. The Mossos will, despite taking on new roles, still be adhering to state law. The deal also includes an increase of 1,800 Mossos agents, taking the force to a total of 26,800 officers. Residency permits and TIE cards The regional authority will also take some control of managing and issuing residency permits and TIE, the foreign identity cardsin Spain. Catalan newspaper La Vanguardia reports that the regional government will reportedly set up a "one-stop shop" for the issuing of long-term stay, temporary residency, long-term residence permits and NIEs (foreigner identity numbers). Deportations and migrant detention centres Catalonia will now also be responsible for control of migrant detention centres and deporting undocumented migrants. The Generalitat will also manage the controversial Internment Centre for Foreigners (CIE) in Barcelona, the only one in the region. If the law is passed, the Catalan administration will be in charge of the direction, coordination, management and inspection of the centre, which is currently run by the Interior Ministry. The Catalan government will be given powers to appoint public employees at the centre, including security, health, social, legal, cultural and linguistic services. Learning Catalan On that theme, Junts is also pushing for rules to make residency conditional on a Catalan language requirement. Party spokeswoman Miriam Nogueras told Spanish state TV that foreigners may need to prove a certain level of Catalan in order to be eligible for residency, and did not make any distinction between EU and non-EU migrants. "We are in Catalonia, and in Catalonia, there is an official language, which is Catalan. In the same way that if you go to live in France, the condition is to learn French," Nogueras said.
