Use of yellow to support jailed officials banned at Barcelona sights

The world-famous magic fountain of Barcelona has for weeks been illuminated in yellow as a sign of solidarity with the Catalan ministers and civil leaders in prison. Yet this has now been banned. The Barcelona-branch of the Spanish electoral board ordered all shows of support in the Catalan city’s fountains and façades using yellow color to be removed during the electoral process.

According to the board, the law says that no administration can use images or expressions “coinciding or similar to the ones used by any candidacy running in the election in their campaigns.” Nevertheless, the Barcelona council is governed by Barcelona en Comú, a coalition without officials incarcerated.

Indeed, a Barcelona local government official said that they will accept the ruling, but she branded the decision as “ridiculous.” She also claimed that the unionist parties think that “by changing the color of a fountain the democratic normality in the country and the city will be restored.” The People’s Party had made an appeal to the board requesting the removal of the yellow signs.

The electoral board has also taken other controversial decisions in the past few days regarding the leaders in prison or in Belgium. The authority decided to prohibit the Catalan public media to use the expressions ‘President Puigdemont’, ‘government in exile’ and ‘imprisoned ministers’ to refer to the eight members of Puigdemont’s cabinet either in Belgium or incarcerated.