Barça and Junts denounce police 'abuse' over beatings and removal of pro-independence flag at La Liga match

Catalan pro-independence party Junts per Catalunya has denounced the "abuse and mistreatment" of the National Police ahead of Sunday night's Elche-Barcelona match, won by the Catalans 0-5 in their first game of the new 2026/27 La Liga season.

On Monday afternoon, the club also condemned "the disproportionate use of force" against Barça fans.

A video shared online by an Elche fan shows police removing a pro-independence flag from Barcelona supporters, separating two fans from the crowd, and starting to beat them with batons. When one Barça fan offers resistance to the violence, more police officers joined in to beat the fan.

The video shows other Barça fans confronting the police after the baton charges, and eventually two officers take away the fan who had been beaten in handcuffs.

"If anyone who was there has information, please let us know," the leader of Junts in the Spanish Congress, Míriam Nogueras, said in a message on social media.

"These animals have to pay," she added.

FC Barcelona added in their statement that the club "regrets that, once again, police officers have confiscated estelada flags from Barça fans," pointing out that the flag is "a legal symbol and its display constitutes a legitimate manifestation of freedom of expression and cannot be considered, in itself, an incitement to hatred or violence."

Both the political party and the club have offered their legal assistance to the fan. 

The deputy spokesperson in Congress for Junts, Pilar Calvo, pointed out that the pro-independence Catalan flag "is not an illegal flag" nor "does it imply a call to any violence."

"The police are beating people disproportionately," Calvo lamented.