This archive report was first published on 21 October 2019.
Spain's November election is looming large over the Catalan crisis, which has seen nearly 600 people injured and two in critical condition over the past week.
The unrest began a week ago when the Supreme Court sentenced nine separatist leaders to long jail terms over an abortive 2017 independence bid.
Protesters have torched cars, burnt barricades, and lobbed rocks at police, who have responded with tear gas and rubber bullets.
Despite the escalating violence, Madrid has shown little appetite for direct intervention, with regional president Quim Torra facing repeated calls to condemn the unrest.
However, the ruling Socialists are facing a backlash, with a string of surveys showing rising support for the conservative opposition Popular Party.
According to a poll in eldiario.es, if an election were held today, the Socialists would win 117 seats in the 350-member parliament, down from 123 in the April elections, while the PP would take 103 up from 66 in April.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez acknowledged the crisis was not yet over but warned the government would not back down.
"It is evident that the radicals who engage in violence have decided that Barcelona will be their theatre of operation to broadcast their grievance to those at home and abroad," he said before meeting wounded officers in hospital.
Sanchez's deputy, Carmen Calvo, also weighed in, telling Britain's Guardian newspaper that Torra should "stop telling impossible lies" and that the independence movement's biggest problem politically is that they've lied to the Catalan people.
Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska denied the current unrest is political in nature, describing it as "basically a crisis of public order".
