Catalan mayor arrested over flying of independence flag

The mayor of a town in Catalonia has been arrested and questioned after defying electoral regulations and hanging a separatist flag from a municipal building.

Montserrat Venturós, mayor of Berga, was detained on Friday morning in her home after failing to appear in court to face charges related to her refusal to take down the "estelada" Catalan independence flag from the town hall during regional and general electoral campaigns in 2015.

Ms Venturós, of the anti-capitalist, pro-independence Popular Union Candidacy (CUP), was held throughout the morning and questioned in a local court.

"We had a clear popular mandate: to keep the estelada [flying] from the town hall," she said, addressing supporters after she was released having received a caution. "We will continue to work on that."

The arrest immediately converted this small town in the north of the Catalan region into a flashpoint for the independence cause. Separatists portrayed the episode as the latest in a litany of cases of the Spanish state responding in a heavy-handed way to the secessionist movement.

‘Freedom of expression’

"I give my support to Montserrat Venturós and the elected officials who suffer persecution for their ideas," tweeted Catalan regional premier Carles Puigdemont. "Freedom of expression is not a crime."

Many others, including the leftist mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, also criticised the arrest and offered their support to the mayor.

Last month, Spain’s constitutional court rolled back legislation passed by Catalan lawmakers in 2010 banning bullfighting in the region, sparking similar anger.

However, Ms Venturós's arrest has heartened unionists, who see the independence drive as illegal. Xavier García Albiol, leader of the Catalan wing of the Popular Party (PP) which governs Spain, described the detention as "comforting, from the point of view of democratic hygiene".

A separatist coalition, Junts pel Sí (or together for Yes), which governs the northeastern region, is attempting to pave the way to an independent republic via its control of the Catalan parliament. As its leader, Mr Puigdemont has laid out plans for an independence referendum in the autumn of 2017, but Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy, who has just formed a new government, has rejected his invitation to bless such a vote and negotiate terms.

Ms Venturós’s CUP is a small party but its support is crucial for the independence movement, as it gives Mr Puigdemont’s coalition a narrow majority in the regional parliament.

There have been tensions between CUP and Junts pel Sí and they were visible again following Ms Venturós’s release. Her arrest had been carried out by the Catalan police, the Mossos d’Esquadra, who are under the command of the regional government. This prompted her lawyer, Benet Salellas, also of CUP, to ask if the Catalan government “is on the side of the Spanish justice system, or on that of the elected separatists of this country.