Thread: Catalan referendum: 'Hundreds hurt' as police try to stop voters

Catalan referendum: 'Hundreds hurt' as police try to stop voters

• 10/1/17

Police have been filmed violently tackling voters and appearing to pull a woman by her hair

Catalan emergency officials say 761 people have been injured as police used force to try to block voting in Catalonia's independence referendum.

The Spanish government had pledged to stop a poll that was declared illegal by the country's constitutional court.

Police officers prevented some people from voting, and seized ballot papers and boxes at polling stations.

In the regional capital Barcelona, police used batons and fired rubber bullets during pro-referendum protests.

Speaking soon after the polls closed at 20:00 local time (18:00 GMT), Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said Catalans had been fooled into taking part in an illegal vote.

What is the latest?

The Spanish interior ministry said 12 police officers had been hurt and three people arrested. It added that 92 polling stations had been closed.

The national police and Guardia Civil - a paramilitary force charged with police duties - were sent into Catalonia in large numbers to prevent the vote from taking place.

While Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau condemned police actions against what she called the region's "defenceless" population, Spain's Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said police had "acted with professionalism and in a proportionate way".

One voter, Júlia Graell, told the BBC that "police started to kick people, young and old", adding: "Today, I have seen the worst actions that a government can do to the people of its own country."

Voters attempt to stop police seizing ballots. Some shouted: "We will vote! We are peaceful people" In Girona, riot police smashed their way into a polling station where Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont was due to vote, and forcibly removed those looking to place their ballots. Mr Puigdemont was able to vote at another polling station.

• The most powerful images of Catalan clashes
• The reasons for the referendum

The BBC's Tom Burridge, in Barcelona, witnessed police being chased away from one polling booth after they had raided it.

Since Friday, thousands of people have occupied schools and other buildings designated as polling stations in order to keep them open.

Many of those inside were parents and their children, who remained in the buildings after the end of lessons on Friday and bedded down in sleeping bags on gym mats.
This woman suffered a head injury in Barcelona In some areas, farmers positioned tractors on roads and in front of polling station doors, and school gates were taken away to make it harder for the authorities to seal buildings off. Firefighters acted as human shields between police and demonstrators.

Referendum organisers had called for peaceful resistance to any police action.

• Why these are uncharted waters for Spain
• How FC Barcelona were caught up in the vote

Meanwhile, FC Barcelona's match against Las Palmas was played behind closed doors, after Barcelona said the football league refused to suspend the game.

Why the tension over the vote?

Police use batons on a crowd Catalonia, a wealthy region of 7.5 million people in north-eastern Spain, has its own language and culture.

It also has a high degree of autonomy, but is not recognised as a separate nation under the Spanish constitution.

• Does Catalonia want to leave Spain?
• Spain's distinctive north-eastern region

Pressure for a vote on self-determination has grown over the past five years.

But Spanish unionists argue Catalonia already enjoys broad autonomy within Spain, along with other regions like the Basque Country and Galicia.
Why some Catalans want independence Mr Rajoy says the vote goes against the constitution, which refers to "the indissoluble unity of the Spanish nation, the common and indivisible homeland of all Spaniards".

Central government spokesman Iñigo Mendez de Vigo accused the Catalan government of being inflexible and one-sided, but it is a charge that Catalan nationalists have thrown back at Madrid itself.

The Spanish government put policing in Catalonia under central control and ordered the regional force, the Mossos d'Esquadra, to help enforce the ban on the illegal referendum.

Before the poll, Spanish authorities seized voting materials, imposed fines on top Catalan officials and temporarily detained dozens of politicians.

Police have also occupied the regional government's telecommunications centre.

Spain says a number of factors ensure the poll does not adhere to international standards: the Spanish interior minister said the computer system preventing people from voting twice was not working from Sunday morning.

On top of that, any result would not be legally binding, as the poll had been blocked by the Constitutional Court.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-41461032

update..
10/2/17 Barcelona Spain

Catalan referendum: Catalonia has 'won right to statehood'

• 8 minutes ago

Catalans sing their anthem 'Els Segadors', or 'The Reapers'

Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont says the Spanish region has won the right to statehood following a contentious referendum that was marred by violence.
He said the door had been opened to a unilateral declaration of independence.
Catalan officials later said 90% of those who voted backed independence in Sunday's vote. The turnout was 42.3%.
Spain's constitutional court had declared the poll illegal and hundreds of people were injured as police used force to try to block voting.
Officers seized ballot papers and boxes at polling stations.
"With this day of hope and suffering, the citizens of Catalonia have won the right to an independent state in the form a republic," Mr Puigdemont said in a televised address flanked by other senior Catalan leaders.

My government, in the next few days will send the results of today's vote to the Catalan parliament, where the sovereignty of our people lies, so that it can act in accordance with the law of the referendum."He said the European Union could no longer "continue to look the other way".



http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-41463719

Wow, this is like a bad wind that blew in from out of nowhere.

Now that is voter suppression - requiring a pertinent piece of ID is not. If only the gov't ordered police to be so ruff on misbehaving migrants, refugees, they wouldn't be having terror attacks/rapes.

So much for Catalonian independence - Madrid came in and took over gov't/police in Barcelona

Catalan crisis: Carles Puigdemont 'welcome' to run in poll

• 10/28/17
• From the section Europe

The Spanish government has said it would welcome the participation of sacked Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont in new elections.
The central government in Madrid has ordered that fresh elections for the regional parliament of Catalonia should take place in December.
It stripped Catalonia of its autonomy after the Catalan parliament voted to declare independence.
Mr Puigdemont is urging "democratic opposition" to direct rule from Madrid.
He condemned the suspension of Catalonia's autonomy and promised to continue to "work to build a free country".
Spain has been gripped by a constitutional crisis since an independence referendum, organised by Mr Puigdemont's separatist government, was held earlier this month in defiance of a ruling by the Constitutional Court which had declared it illegal.
The Catalan government said that of the 43% of potential voters who took part, 90% were in favour of independence.
Friday saw the regional parliament declare independence, with Madrid responding by declaring the move illegal.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy then announced the dissolution of the regional parliament and the removal of Mr Puigdemont as Catalan leader, and ordered that fresh regional elections should be held.
What are the latest developments?

Saturday saw the government in Madrid remove Catalonia's autonomy and take over government functions in the region.
An official state bulletin (in Spanish) handed control of Catalonia to Spain's Deputy Prime Minister, Soraya Saenz de Santamaria.

And Spain's interior ministry took charge of Catalonia's police after firing senior Catalan police officials.
A central government spokesman in Madrid, Íñigo Méndez de Vigo, said Mr Puigdemont had the right to continue in politics, despite his removal from office.
"I'm quite sure that if Puigdemont takes part in these elections, he can exercise this democratic opposition," he said, quoted by Reuters.
"The Catalans will be able to say what they feel about what they've been seeing in this last year, with all sorts of failing the law, abusing the law and putting themselves outside the law," he added.

Image caption Puigdemont said Madrid's actions were "premeditated aggression" He spoke after Mr Puigdemont, in a pre-recorded address to Catalans on Saturday afternoon, said the central government's actions were "premeditated aggression" that ran "contrary to the expressed will of the citizens of our country, who know perfectly well that in a democracy it is parliaments that choose, or remove, presidents".
He added: "We continue persevering in the only attitude that can make us winners. Without violence, without insults, in an inclusive way, respecting people and symbols, opinions, and also respecting the protests of the Catalans who do not agree with what the parliamentary majority has decided."
A poll published by Spanish national newspaper El Pais on Saturday suggests more Catalans (52% to 43%) are in favour of the dissolution of the regional parliament and the holding of elections.

Fifty-five per cent of Catalan respondents opposed the declaration of independence, with 41% in favour.
What powers did Catalonia have?

Before Madrid took over the Catalan government, the region had one of the greatest levels of self-government in Spain.
It has its own parliament, police force and public broadcaster, as well as a government and president, though those have now been dismissed.
Catalans had a range of powers in many policy areas from culture and environment to communications, transportation, commerce and public safety.


Foreign affairs, the armed forces and fiscal policy were always the sole responsibility of the Spanish government.
What's the reaction been?

Thousands celebrated Friday's declaration of independence on the streets of Barcelona, Catalonia's regional capital.
The same crowds that cheered each Yes vote from Catalan MPs reportedly booed Mr Rajoy as he made his announcement.


There were pro-unity demonstrations too, with protesters in Barcelona waving Spanish flags and denouncing Catalan independence.

Saturday saw several thousand people attend a rally in Madrid, waving Spanish flags and calling for national unity. Some accused Catalonia's leaders of treason.
How did we get here?

After the 1 October referendum, Mr Puigdemont signed a declaration of independence but delayed implementation to allow talks with the Spanish government.
He ignored warnings by the Madrid government to cancel the move, prompting Mr Rajoy to threaten to remove Catalan leaders and impose direct rule.

Catalonia is one of Spain's richest, most distinctive regions, with a high degree of autonomy.

Many Catalans feel they pay more to Madrid than they get back, and there are historical grievances, too, in particular Catalonia's treatment under the dictatorship of General Franco. But Catalans have been divided on the question of independence.

Catalonia in numbers

16% of Spain's population live in Catalonia, and it produces:

• 25.6% of Spain's exports
• 19% of Spain's GDP
• 20.7% of foreign investment

Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness, Eurostat, Bank of Spain

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-41791446