BARCELONA: Spain yesterday celebrated its national day with a military parade marked by austerity while in Barcelona Catalans opposed to greater independence for their region rallied to show unity.
The budget for the parade in Madrid, the first since conservative Mariano Rajoy took office as prime minister, had been slashed by two thirds, compared with 2011, from ¤2.8m to 900,000, as the nation grapples with its acute financial crisis.
No tanks were on show or fighter aircraft. Only the national Aquila aerobatic team took to the skies, streaking the red and yellow colours of the national flag.
The parade lasted only an hour and involved 2,600 troops. They were reviewed on foot by King Juan Carlos, in spite of a hip injury sustained during a widely criticised elephant hunt in Africa.
The royal family was warmly applauded by the crowd in spite of a series of scandals, including the hunting trip and another involving the royal couple’s son-in-law, Inaki Urdangarin who, like his wife, the Infanta Christina, was absent.
Rajoy was met with silence. His predecessor, the socialist Jose Luis Rodriguez, was booed on the same occasion last year.
Catalonia, where there is a groundswell of demand for greater autonomy or even independence, sent no representative to the celebrations in Madrid.
But in the regional capital Barcelona demonstrators called for national unity. Police put their numbers at 6,000.
