Masked Picket Storms TVE Studio in Barcelona, Halts Live Show
About 50 hooded strikers burst onto the set of Gemma Nierga's TVE program in Barcelona on general strike day and cut the broadcast. Here is what happened.
A picket of about 50 hooded protesters entered the Barcelona studio of the TVE show Cafè d’Idees on Wednesday morning, Nov. 11, and forced it off the air during the general strike in Catalonia. The group left after officers from the Mossos d’Esquadra (Catalonia’s police) arrived, and the program resumed a few minutes later, according to ABC and El País.
Presenter Gemma Nierga said her team had been assigned to work under minimum services, the staffing levels set for essential activities during a strike, so they could cover the stoppage itself.
What happened at the studio
The Mossos received the alert at about 8.00, when the group appeared at the broadcaster’s headquarters on Carrer de Roc Boronat, ABC reported. The protesters unfurled several banners and the broadcast was cut. Police units reached the building minutes later, and the group walked out of the studios.
Cafè d’Idees is a current affairs magazine show that airs at the same time on La 2Cat and Ràdio 4, according to El País. The program had prepared a special edition on the strike, Nierga said.
“Journalists are considered an essential service, but today we cannot do our work,” she said. RTVE Catalunya and the show’s own account both posted on X that the program could not start normally because a group of demonstrators had entered the set.
Other incidents on strike morning
The Mossos said the most notable incidents in the first hours of the strike were burning tires on roads across Catalonia and protesters blocking traffic. ABC described the Diagonal, one of Barcelona’s main avenues, as deserted at that hour.
During the night, the Mossos arrested one person in Ciutat Vella for setting containers on fire. The person is accused of criminal damage.
What the Govern and journalists said
The Govern (Catalan government) said the minimum services set for the strike “are being met across the board” and that no serious incidents had been recorded so far. Pol Gibert, the Generalitat’s secretary for Business and Labor, made the statement at the Palau de la Generalitat as he assessed the start of the strike in Catalonia.
The Col·legi de Periodistes de Catalunya (Catalan journalists’ association) published a message on X backing the program’s team. It defended both the right to strike and the right to information, which it said must be compatible.
Why it matters
The interruption shows how a strike picket can collide with a service that had minimum staffing assigned on strike day. The broadcaster had designated personnel to inform the public about the stoppage, and for several minutes it could not do so on air. The government’s early assessment of the strike, with minimum services largely respected and no serious incidents, was given before the day’s events had unfolded fully.
Readers in Barcelona should expect road blockages and burning tires to be part of the day’s reports, since the Mossos listed them as the main incidents so far.
