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Despite Police Violence, Catalans Vote Today

Above photo: From Twitter.

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Spain – Catalonians across the region in Spain today voted on a referendum for independence in the face of often severe police violence by the Spanish civil guard. The vote was held even though Spain’s Constitutional Court declared it illegal. Despite being evenly split on the issue of independence, 70 percent of Catalonians favored holding a vote on the referendum as an expression of their democratic rights.

Catalonia is a region around Barcelona. It has a distinct language and culture. The region is wealthy overall and makes up one fifth of Spain’s gross domestic product.

The campaign for independence has been underway for a number of years. Javier Moreno Zacarés explains in Novara Media that during the Franco dictatorship (1939 to 1975), “Catalan language and culture were persecuted” and that many Catalonians remember this period. The new constitution in 1978 conferred some autonomy to the region. This is an important aspect of Catalan society that has been under attack by the conservative government of Spain.

In 2006, the Catalan Parliament passed a “statute of devolution” that recognized Catalonia as a ‘nation,’ although only symbolically. The Constitutional Court ruled against it in 2010. Zacarés states that “Since 2012, the Catalan government has been in open rebellion against the central state, vowing to hold an independence referendum by any means necessary.”

Al Jazeera reports that “Sunday’s vote will be the region’s second referendum on independence in three years. The previous ballot, a non-binding vote in November 2014, returned an 80 percent result in favour of an independent Catalan state. However, less than half of the 5.4 million eligible voters participated.”

After that, the Catalan Parliament started to lay out the infrastructure for an independent state. A bill to provide legal standing to that infrastructure was passed by the Catalan Parliament on August 20; however, the Constitutional Court ruled against it. The Catalan Parliament decided to go ahead with a vote on a referendum for independence despite controversy. There are concerns over the validity of the voting process and what percentage of voters would be required to vote for the process to be representative of the people’s will.

On top of this controversy was the crackdown by the Spanish government. Leading up to the vote, ten million ballots were seized and the Spanish civil guard were deployed to the region to stop the vote. For the past few weeks, there have been rallies and marches throughout Catalonia for the right to vote and international solidarity, particularly from the Scottish Independence movement.

Carles Puigdemont, the President of Catalonia, told Al Jazeera, “Today the debate is not between ‘Yes’ or No’, it’s above all between those who wish to create a new, modern state right from the grassroots or to continue with an authoritarian state which can cut back on our freedom and liberties, and compel us to continue forming part of this state.”

On Sunday morning, residents of Catalonia lined up at polling stations at local schools. Some of the schools were occupied by residents leading up to the vote in order to keep them open. There were over 2,000 polling places in all and police were successful in shutting down 336 of them, according to The Guardian.

In some towns, the violence was severe with police beating people who were waiting in line and forcefully dragging them out of polling stations. Fire fighters who tried to form a protective line between the people and police were attacked. Police fired rubber bullets at crowds.

 

In some towns, local police protected the voters. In other towns, local residents forced the Spanish civil guard to leave.

So far, 465 people with injuries have been reported. [Update: We now hear the number is 761.]

The ballots are now being counted. And people are gathering to oppose the police violence today and support Catalonians’ democratic rights.

Solidarity marches are also being held.

Politicians are denouncing the police violence.


The Guardian reports:

  • There have been several calls by Catalan politicians and opposition MPs for the Spanish prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, to resign over the hardline police response.
  • Human Rights Watch has released a statement calling on Spanish authorities to respect their citizens’ right to peaceful assembly and refrain from using excessive force.
  • The Labour party has condemned the police violence. Emily Thornberry, the shadow foreign secretary, said: “It is unacceptable for the Spanish authorities to overreact to today’s events through aggressive police action and the forcible closure of polling stations.”
  • Guy Verhofstadt made the first condemnation by a senior EU politician, saying: “I don’t want to interfere in the domestic issues of Spain but I absolutely condemn what happened today in Catalonia.”

The Mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, told EuroNews:

“I’m worried, like many people, because we have been witnessing something unprecedented in democracy: an absolutely cowardly prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, who for days has not proposed anything, not offered any alternative, as he should be doing as the leader of the government. Not only that, he’s been hiding behind judges and prosecutors, and now he’s hiding behind thousands of policemen charging against a defenseless population,” Colau said.

“All the red lines have been crossed and today marks a turning point. Now I believe we’ll be thousands calling for Rajoy to resign, not only in Catalonia but across the entire country. Let’s not forget that Rajoy’s is a minority government and that’s why we must remind all political forces it’s also their responsibility to find a sensible way out of this disaster and this nonsense.”

We understand that pro-independence groups and unions are calling for a General Strike in Catalonia on October 3.

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