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A man drives a tractor decorated with a pro-Independence flag during the Catalan National Day on Tuesday.
Photo: APWatching the protest on the broad avenue that slices diagonally through Barcelona, 59-year-old psychologist Montse Martin said the movement needed to regain momentum.
"Let's see if from today there will be a turning point and we will be able to move forward," she said. "We have to get down to work and not focus so much on what has happened, as serious as it was, but look to the future."
The September 11 "Diada" celebration marks the fall of Barcelona to Spain in 1714, and has been adopted by independence activists in recent years.
It falls just over a year after Puigdemont's administration held a referendum which Madrid sent riot police to try to stop, and made a unilateral declaration of independence.
Rajoy then imposed direct rule, on the basis of Spain's constitution, which states the country is indivisible.
Pro-Independence demonstrators pack the Avenida Diagonal during the Catalan National Day in Barcelona, Spain.
Photo: APTorra and other attendees at the march wore yellow ribbons representing nine politicians and activists awaiting trial in jail for their role in the independence bid.
Their trials are expected to start later this year, a potential new source of tension. Sanchez told a Senate session on Tuesday that what Catalonia needed was "law and dialogue".
Divisions over the question of secession are stark in a region that makes up around one fifth of Spain's economic output and already has a high level of autonomy in areas including education and health, and its own police force.
A July poll showed 46.7 per cent of Catalans saying they wanted an independent state while 44.9 per cent did not. A separatist coalition won regional elections in December, although the fervently pro-unionist Ciudadanos emerged as the single largest party.
Ciudadanos's leader, Barcelona-born Albert Rivera, said on Twitter the Diada had been turned into "a day of exclusion, hatred and attack on Spain".
Catalan separatist authorities had called for people to flood the streets of Barcelona on Tuesday in a march calling for independence from Spain.
Photo: APYellow-hued banners bearing the faces of those in jail and the word 'Free' hung from city lamp posts.
Maria Angels Brugada, waiting for friends at a central square ahead of an evening march, said the prisoners and the politicians who fled into exile would set the mood for this year's celebration.
"There are many people who aren't here and are without their families," said the 61-year-old. "It gives me goose pimples just talking about it."
Reuters