Far-left CUP urges Home Affairs minister to 'resign immediately'

The far-left CUP party has urged the Home Affairs minister Miquel Buch to "resign immediately", following the Catalan police actions to keep opposing protests apart.

Six people were arrested and fourteen others injured after clashes between pro-independence supporters and the Catalan police corps, the Mossos d'Esquadra, in central Barcelona.

Officers were trying to keep the pro-independence groups away from a Spanish police march that was honoring agents that took part in last year's crackdown of the independence referendum.

The Mossos used force to stop the pro-independence groups crossing the police cordon separating them from the Spanish officers. However, some of them did and there were moments of tension and confrontation.

"The same people that on October 1 defended the polling stations and today were protesting against fascism, have been victims of the same violence, this time exercised by the Mossos," said CUP leader in Parliament, Carles Riera.

Riera criticized the Catalan government for having allowed a "fascist demonstration" in the streets of Barcelona, in reference to the Spanish police union march. The demonstration was called by Justapol, a Spanish police union, but far-right groups such as VOX also took part.

With four MPs, CUP is the third pro-independence group in the Catalan Parliament, and has usually been an ally of the government when it comes to the independence agenda.

However, they are far away ideologically, and this term the group has insisted it will only support the executive if and when it takes specific steps towards the creation of a Catalan Republic.