Despite the police brutality against largely peaceful demonstrations, voting began in many locations across northeast Spain at 9 a.m. The Catalan government said 73 percent of polling stations were open. Spain’s representative in the region, Enric Millo, said the vote had been “dismantled.”
Catalan President Carles Puigdemont said the crackdown had been an “unjustified, excessive and irresponsible use of violence.”
“It didn’t end Catalans’ desire to vote and decide freely about their future, but it has helped to answer all the questions we had to address today,” he said at a voting site near Girona that had been raided by the Civil Guard. “Today, the Spanish state lost.”
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy deployed thousands of police from outside Catalonia ahead of the vote to maintain public order, with the crisis already roiling his minority government.
The prime minister withdrew his budget from parliament last week after his Basque Nationalist allies signaled they would shoot down the bill in protest at his handling of Catalan demands. His job isn’t under any imminent threat, but his authority is compromised by his inability to legislate and some of his European partners may be shocked by the images from Barcelona today.
Vídeo | Altercados entre Policía Nacional y la Guardia Civil con los concentrados en los centros de votación http://cort.as/–38-
