The Spanish government’s Council of Ministers meeting is held at the Llotja de Mar in Barcelona

On 12 November, Pedro Sánchez announced that a meeting of the Council of Ministers would be held in Barcelona. This is the first such meeting to take place in Barcelona since the restoration of democracy in Spain, and coincides with the first anniversary of the 21 December 2017 elections that were held under Article 155. Òmnium Cultural calls for protests and organises an ‘alternative Council of Ministers meeting’ at Estació de França train station, a short distance from where the official meeting is being held. The protest is supported by ERC, JxCAT, the CUP and the ANC. The ANC also calls for a slow convoy of vehicles through Barcelona, reducing traffic to 42% of what it would normally be on a Friday. Also in the morning, the CDRs block several roads, cutting off The Ronda de Dalt and Ronda Litoral, as well as the A-2 and AP-7 at various points throughout the country. Starting in the mid-morning, there are protests by the security cordon set up for the meeting, which lead to clashes between protesters and the Mossos d’Esquadra, who charge against the demonstrators several times, injuring 77. They also arrest 13 demonstrators, who are released the next day. One protester loses a testicle after being hit by a Mossos d’Esquadra projectile. That Friday afternoon, the 21 December platform organises a protest with the slogan ‘Let’s topple the regime.’ The CDRs also call for protests in front of the government sub-delegations in Lleida, Tarragona and Girona. The pro-independence trade union Intersindical-CSC calls a general strike for the same day, from 12.30 pm to 2.30 pm, arguing that the 6 October decree on the movement of company headquarters outside of Catalonia is still in force, as is the Partido Popular’s labour reform.