As has happened every night for over a year, dozens of protesters demanding independence from Spain sit down in the middle of a wide Barcelona avenue, bringing traffic to a standstill.
Though just a handful, they are supporters of Catalonia's powerful separatist movement which is gearing up for an important regional election on Sunday that could ease a years-long crisis over the thorny question of independence.
The movement, whose two main parties dominate the regional government, has faced a growing crisis since 2017 following a failed bid to break away from Spain.
"Before the pandemic there were more of us but people are tired. There is political disenchantment," says 70-year-old Amadeu Pallister, who swears he has been at every one of the more than 300 nightly protests held so far on Meridiana Avenue.
"Some politicians are talking about dialogue, about negotiating with Madrid, but we already know you can't expect anything from Spain, only repression," he told AFP.
The nightly demonstrations began in October 2019 when Spain's Supreme Court handed lengthy prison terms to nine Catalan separatist leaders over their role in the 2017 crisis, sparking mass protests, some of them violent.
At the time, about a thousand people massed on Meridiana Avenue, blocking one of Barcelona's key arteries.
Keeping the independence spirit alive
After a year of nightly protests that only stopped during the months-long coronavirus lockdown last spring, the number of participants has dwindled to just a few dozen, who spread out across the eight lanes of traffic ignoring angry honking from drivers.
"It is just not logical to keep doing this for so long: cutting traffic every day for two hours," said Vicente Serrano, a 61-year-old human resources manager who lives in the neighbourhood.
"But because it's in the Catalan government's interest to keep this alive, it accepts and encourages it."
Serrano fears on Sunday's election will return the separatist parties to power.
They've ruled this region of 7.8 million people since 2015 but are coming to the polls strongly divided over the question of exactly how to achieve independence.
And the region itself is divided, with a December poll showing 45.1% in favour of independence from Spain and 49.9% against, with leaders of the two camps routinely attacking each other.
"In this election, the general tension has given way to internal tension within the independence movement," says Oriol Bartomeus, a political scientist at the Autonomous University of Barcelona.
The movement is divided into two main currents with the hardline JxC -- "Together for Catalonia" -- heading the coalition alongside the more moderate ERC, or "Republican Left of Catalonia."
JxC has taken a more confrontational approach, pledging a new declaration of independence if it wins while ERC has softened its position, becoming an ally of Spain's Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez in the national parliament.