alfred bosch, welcome to hardtalk. thank you. few days we have seen sustained violence on the streets of barcelona and some other catalan towns and cities as well. would you accept the last week or so has actually been a negative for your cause, the cause of catalan independence? well, it's been negative for everybody. nobody likes clashes, nobody likes to see these images in the streets of barcelona or other cities. nobody likes it. but at the same time, it's been extremely negative because what unfurled, what provoked all this was these jail these sentences to nine people who got sentenced to 100 years in jail for organising a vote. now, that's something that i call a "negative" in the 21st century europe that's not acceptable. that's completely unacceptable. so there is outrage. and there's shock. it didn't come as a shock, you just said, it didn't surely come as a shock. the court had clearly ruled that the independence referendum held in 2017 was illegal and the declaration of independence from the regional government that f

now on bbc news, stephen sackur speaks to catalan minister for foreign action, alfred bosch.