ONE of the Catalan pro-independence leaders on hunger strike in prison spoke of the emotional impact yesterday as he signed a “living will”.

Jordi Turull, the former minister of the presidency, told El Nacional newspaper in Catalonia that he had signed the document with Jaume Padrós – a doctor who is looking after those refusing food – as his witness.

“Today we have met Dr Padrós. Since they sign you with the document of anticipated wishes, it really impacts, but you have to do it,” Turull wrote from Lledoners prison.

“Dr Padrós is very co-ordinated with the medical services of the prison – by the way, they are very good, great professionals and very attentive to everyone.”

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Turull also revealed that even though he was hungry, he had refused an offer to change his job in the jail’s dining room, for two reasons: “First, because the prisoners who have done this work for a long time have made a healthy group, and second, to match your support and warm up these first days.”

Despite being without food, he said he was well physically and might use his position to give up smoking.

“I have done well, sensations of relief rather than appetite,” he wrote. “At this moment, there is no dizziness and less or almost no need to smoke. I will use it to try to do what I [should] have done so long ago.”

Turull started refusing food almost a week ago, along with Jordi Sànchez, former president of the Catalan National Assembly (ANC), over the Spanish Constitutional Court blocking their access to European justice.

They were joined on Tuesday by ex-territory minister Josep Rull and Quim Forn, the former interior minister.

They are imprisoned along with sacked vice-president Oriol Junqueras, former foreign minister Raül Romeva and Jordi Cuixart, president of grassroots group Omnium Cultural, for their part in the independence referendum in October last year.

Three Catalan ministers and a number of pro-independence MPs yesterday started a 24-hour fast in solidarity with the hunger strike – known in Catalan as vagadefam, which is also its social media hashtag. Government spokesperson Elsa Artadi, Culture Minister Laura Borras and Territory Minister Damià Calvet were among those who started the action at the Capuchin monastery in Barcelona, where they stayed overnight.

Their protest came on the 40th anniversary of the Spanish constitution, of which they were critical, saying in a statement: “It blocks the exercise of the collective fundamental individual and collective rights, such as the right to self-determination of the peoples, the freedom of speech and the right of a political representation.”

A group of Catalan priests also called for solidarity with the vagadefam, urging people to demand “a fair solution to the ongoing conflict between Catalonia and Spain”.

Catalan police, meanwhile, clashed yesterday with a group of anti-fascist demonstrators in Girona, northern Catalonia, injuring 15 protesters and four officers.

The protest was held against an event to mark the constitution’s anniversary in the city which had been supported by the far-right Vox party and the People’s Party (PP).

Police charged the demonstrators with batons after they had knocked down fences for the event and charged at them again before it got under way.