Hooded groups rioted in central Barcelona on Wednesday evening after a nationwide general-strike march over housing and wages, Spain’s first in 14 years. They smashed shop windows, burned bins, built barricades and fired pyrotechnics at the Catalan police, the Mossos d’Esquadra.
The 24-hour strike was called by the main unions, CCOO and UGT, together with tenants’ unions including Catalonia’s Sindicat de Llogateres. It was a national stoppage, not a Catalan-only protest, under the slogan “Salaries. Housing. Prices.”
In Barcelona, the city police, the Guardia Urbana, put the main march at 55,000 people, though organisers claimed 400,000.
The march set off at 16:30 GMT from the Jardinets de Gràcia and went down Passeig de Gràcia towards Plaça Catalunya. The Sindicat de Llogateres called it off once it reached the square and asked those gathered to disperse. Shortly after 18:30 GMT, once the main protest had been called off, the disturbances began.
The unrest spread through the city centre, from the junction of Passeig de Gràcia and the Gran Via to Plaça Catalunya and nearby streets. Police issued loudspeaker warnings, then charged and advanced with vans. The Barcelona fire service was deployed to put out the fires. Neighbours in some streets tried to extinguish burning bins, according to EFE, El Mundo and Ara.
Barcelona (Nov. 11) — Antifa and far-left extremists started fires on the streets as the riots spread to Spain. pic.twitter.com/5Zu9yYpYD8
— Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) November 12, 2026
A fire was lit at the door of the Apple store on Plaça Catalunya, at the lower end of Passeig de Gràcia. Hooded people tried to get in and police intervened. Whether anyone got inside is disputed.
Salvador Illa, Catalonia’s regional president, wrote: “Neither the violence nor the vandalism represents the people who have demonstrated peacefully today throughout the day.”
He added: “In Catalonia, whoever does it, pays for it… Protest is legitimate; violence is not.”
Núria Parlon, the Catalan interior minister, said at 20:42 GMT: “In Catalonia, whoever does it, pays for it — so far, 18 arrested.” At 21:20 GMT she reported three further arrests by the Mossos after the demonstration. The count was still rising.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez backed the strike, encouraging workers to take part and defending the right to strike.
A snap general election is due on Sunday 29 November. This website reported on 5 October that Sánchez had called the vote after emergency housing decrees were rejected in parliament. It has since reported talks on an electoral pact between Spain’s conservatives and populists, and has covered the housing-cost backdrop to the vote.
