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Some people in Catalonia, a rich and culturally distinct area in north-east of Spain,
want to secede from the larger country. According to
polls (pdf) less than half of the people in the area support the move. The local government prepared for a referendum and called for a local vote.
Polling stations were set up for today. But Spanish laws do not allow for such polls or a separation. Catalonia, like other Spanish regions, already has a good degree of autonomy. If Catalonia were to secede the Basque areas in the north would likely follow. Spain would fall apart. Under Spanish law the referendum is illegal. The central government sent police to prevent the procedure. Street melees ensued.
Comment: Spanish police have been filmed firing
rubber bullets on unarmed civilians (more videos
here). Another video shows a police officer slamming a young woman to the ground. The Catalan government says 38 people had been treated for injuries inflicted by police early this morning, pinning the responsibility on Spanish leader Mariano Rajoy. A few hours later, that number was 337. The reaction should have been predictable. Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont made that clear:
"The unjustified, disproportionate and irresponsible violence of the Spanish state today has not only failed to stop Catalans' desire to vote ... but has helped to clarify all the doubts we had to resolve today".
Police have destroyed at least one
polling station, and
seized ballot boxes in an attempt to stop the referendum. But 90+% of polling stations are
open, according to Catalan sources (Spain says it shut down 50%). Would-be voters have been
forcibly removed from polling stations by police.
Puigdemont says Catalonia could declare independence within 48 hours if "yes" wins. Jeremy Corbyn and Belgium's PM have condemned the Spanish police's violence.
Julian Assange has been tweeting about Spain's tactics:
Update: The number of
injured is now over 460, 2 seriously injured.
Update: Catalan police defended polling stations and were forced into several
standoffs with Spanish police. Catalans showed an outpouring of support for the Catalan police, bringing some of them to tears. At the end of the day, over 840 Catalans were injured by Spanish police (more footage
here). The Spanish FM defended the police actions, calling them "proportionate":
"You may think people were peacefully exercising their right to vote but the problem is this so-called referendum had been ruled illegal by the Constitutional Court," Alfonso Dastis told SkyNews on Sunday.
Dastis denounced the referendum as "sham voting," accusing the organizers of bringing in rigged ballot boxes, full of pre-planted votes. The official did not provide any proof for the allegations, though.
Spain's FM dismissed allegations of excessive police violence. "I don't agree with you that this is an extraordinary level of violence," Dastis said.
...
The lack of reaction towards the referendum clashes on the part of EU leaders, according to Dastis, is due to them waiting on "reliable information" as evidence of the violence to be distributed by the "defenders of the so-called" referendum, and which might contain "fake photos." The official urged to "wait and see" until this "reliable information" of sorts emerges.
When asked about the Spanish government reaction should the Catalonia actually declare independence, the official took on the same expectative approach, stating that it should happen first and then talk about it.
It's pretty stunning how detached from reality Dastis is. We guess all those videos of Spanish police beating grannies at the polling stations were fake. Spain's PM journeyed
even deeper into La La Land, announcing that "no referendum has been held in Catalonia today". He too defended police, saying they "performed their duty", apparently unable to foresee the internet memes that will undoubtedly result from such a statement. He added that voting (in the referendum that didn't take place) only damaged Spain's "coexistence" and "served to sow division". Police beating grannies no doubt played no part in that.
By contrast, the Catalan government's
responses look sane:
Announcing a two pronged response strategy, officials added that a process to institute anti-Madrid sanctions in the EU is already underway.
"We will initiate formalities to activate the mechanisms of sanctions... We think that the actions of the Spanish state that the whole world is witnessing, put the image of the EU as a guarantor of democracy and human rights at risk," Catalan Minister of Foreign Affairs, Raul Romeva told a news conference in Barcelona Sunday.
Catalan officials have initiated contact with various EU institutions, including the European Parliament and the European Commission, along with representatives of EU member states "in order to launch measures to penalize and control" Madrid, he added.
The minister referred to the EU's Article 7, a law that can suspend a member state's voting rights and impose sanctions on a country believed to have fundamentally violated human rights.
Having accused Spanish authorities of such violations, another Catalan government official, Jordi Turull told reporters that Madrid should be held accountable in international courts for its actions during the poll.
The referendum now complete, Puidgemont says the official results will be announced in a few days. His
message: "On this day of hope and suffering, Catalonia's citizens have earned the right to have an independent state in the form of a republic."
Despite Puidgemont's statement, however, the Catalan government has already issued
results (we assume they are preliminary results, and that official ones are forthcoming):
Over two million Catalans, or 90.9 percent of those who voted said 'Yes' in Sunday's referendum, regional authorities said. Only 7,87 percent, or 176,565 voters said 'No' when asked if they want to attain independence from Madrid.
The Catalan government said the result reflects only the ballots that "were not seized" during police raids on polling stations throughout the day.
"What kind of a democracy steals ballot boxes?" asked Vice President Oriol Junqueras, standing next to government representatives, Raul Romeva and Jordi Turull.
...
Of Catalonia's 5.34 million voters, this represents a turnout of around 42.3 percent, excluding those whose ballots were confiscated and people who were prevented from voting by police.
The massive police crackdown "prevented" an estimated 770,000 people from voting, Catalan government board member Turull said during the vote result announcement.
Update (Oct. 2): Madrid has vowed to do "everything within the law" to
prevent Catalonia from declaring independence:
Asked if the central government would use Article 155 of the Spanish constitution, which would allow it to practically suspend the autonomous powers of the northeastern region, Catala said: "That is a tool that is there."
"We have always said that we will use all the force of the law, all the mechanisms that the constitution and the laws grant the government," he added.
"We are not here to divide Spaniards, we are here to serve the general interest, therefore if we have to use certain measures that worry us and may hurt, we will do it. It is important to guarantee that Spain has rule of law, that laws are fulfilled," he said.
The European Commission finally
commented on the police crackdown:
"We call on all relevant players to now move very swiftly from confrontation to dialogue," the European Commission said in a statement on Monday.
"Violence can never be an instrument in politics," it said, adding that it is incumbent on Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy "to manage this difficult process in full respect of the Spanish Constitution and of the fundamental rights of citizens enshrined therein."
...
Some EU Parliament parties have already decried the violence during the Catalonian referendum. The Confederal Group of the European United Left/Nordic Green Left wants to raise the issue during the Monday meeting, calling on the body to protect the rights of Catalans.
The president of the GUE/NGL group in the European Parliament, Gabi Zimmer, said that the EU cannot ignore "the shocking scenes" and tolerate "attacks on democracy."
Greens in the European Parliament also strongly condemned the attacks on peaceful voters.
The UN also responded to the violence in Catalonia on Monday as High Commissioner for Human Rights Prince Zeid bin Ra'ad called on the Spanish government to resolve the Catalan question "through political dialogue with full respect for democratic freedoms." He also wants the authorities to investigate "all acts of violence" related to the referendum.
...
Most leaders of EU member states have not offered any reaction to the situation in Catalonia. Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was among the earliest to condemn the police brutality, saying it was "shocking" and "unnecessary" and calling on Madrid to let people"vote peacefully."
...
On Monday, Germany also stressed the necessity of dialogue between Spanish central and regional governments, urging the sides to "keep calm." "The images that reached us yesterday from Spain show how important it is to interrupt the spiral of escalation," German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said, according to Reuters.
As Republican Left leader on the Barcelona City Council Alfred Bosch
told RT:
The fact is that they have prevented - in a very hostile manner - people from voting. They have prevented people from voting who want independence; however, they also prevented those who wanted to vote 'No' to independence and were against independence like themselves. That is very undemocratic.
...
It is backfiring right now. Just look at how people have been voting in the thousands, they have been showing up in all the voting stations. Just look at how the international press is covering what is going on here. And just see how people back in Russia, or Europe or anywhere in the world are watching these shocking images and thinking what on earth is going on in Spain? Has this government of Mr. Rajoy turned absolutely crazy? Have they gone back to the Middle Ages? Or to General Franco's military dictatorship?
Like the local police, local Catalan firemen stepped in to protect voters and polling stations from Spanish police. The local response? They were
greeted as heroes. Again, the Spanish government seriously miscalculated the public perception of their response to the vote.
The Catalan government plans to set up a
commission to look into Spain's violation of fundamental rights. (893 people were injured, 72 of whom have filed formal complaints against Spanish police.)
Puigdemont demanded the withdrawal of the National Police and Civil Guard from the territory of Catalonia, and said that his government will be taking steps to carry out their mandate for independence in the next few days, following the victory of the 'yes' vote.
...
Barcelona's mayor, Ada Colau, while not a supporter of the independence movement, has echoed Puigdemont's calls for a thorough examination and explanation of what happened on Sunday, accusing police officers of carrying out not only beatings but sexual assaults. Colau has also called on Prime Minister Rajoy to resign, arguing that the EU should take over the talks.
Meanwhile students have been holding a silent protest against the brutality that took place on Sunday at the Plaza de Cataluna, the central square in Barcelona, while other protesters gathered outside the Palau de la Generalitat de Catalunya which houses the Catalan government.
A general strike has been called in Catalonia on Tuesday as two of Spain's biggest unions, the Catalan National Assembly (ANC), a powerful pro-independence civil association, and 41 other groups have called on their supporters to protest against "the grave violation of rights and freedoms." As a major hub of the Spanish economy, the strike could have significant ramifications across the whole country.
Despite pre-vote polls showing a fairly even split between yes/no (both sides failing to show a clear majority), it looks as if yes sentiments surged in past weeks as Spain's heavy-handed tactics were put into effect. See this
last-minute poll published by the
National:
Update (Oct. 3): As Catalonians strike and protest today, France's president Macron
took heat for siding with Spain. A source says he "underlined his support for Spain's constitutional unity" directly to Spanish PM Rajoy. No comment on whether or not he condemned the Spanish police response to the referendum.
Meanwhile, hundreds of Spanish police were
evicted from hotels in Catalonia today. Hotel owners made the call after Sunday's police brutality:
A lawyer acting for the police has pledged legal action against the hotel owner and local council he claimed had pressured him into serving the expulsion order, a claim town hall chiefs have angrily denied. ...
Police have claimed on social media that waiters at some of the hotels they were staying at called in sick after being pressured to skip work, prompting staff shortages.
They also said some distributors had cut food supplies to the hotels "off their own backs or because they were being pressured".
One message, said to be circulating on a closed police WhatsApp group but flagged up by several Spanish newspapers, said: "The director of the hotel I was staying at received several calls, one of them saying that they were going to burn it down, others threatening to kill his parents and reminding him that he had young children."
Right, "pressure". Couldn't have anything to do with the fact that you guys royally messed up and are now hated by more Catalonians than did just a few days ago.
To evade authorities and avoid violence, one priest allowed activists to
use his church to count ballots there:
I have a very good relationship with the neighbors and before the violence in other towns, I offered the temple to them,"he explained.
"It was also bigger and so more people could follow the scrutiny. I'm happy to have welcomed them."
Comment: London's "0" kill statistics tell the story.
See also: