It’s unclear when or, indeed, if a result will be announced and no exit polls are planned, though those who do vote are likely to be overwhelmingly from the pro-independence camp. A non-binding vote in 2014, also held in defiance of the Spanish courts, saw 80 percent back a split from Spain on turnout of about 30 percent. In the most recent Catalan government poll in July, 35 percent of respondents said the region should become independent.
One Catalan officer was arrested during the crackdown, Sebastian Hernandez, a spokesman for the Spanish police officers’ union, said. The Catalan policeman started kicking a National Police vehicle while officers were removing ballot boxes from a polling station in Barcelona.
“There has been no referendum nor the appearance of one,” Spanish Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said in a televised statement from Madrid. “The professionalism of the security services has had to make up for the irresponsibility of the regional government.”
Rajoy is facing Spain’s biggest constitutional crisis since the political settlement that followed the death of dictator Francisco Franco in 1975. That gave regional administrations control of areas such as health, education and, in Catalonia’s case, the police, within a centralized system for collecting and distributing tax revenue. Many Catalans complain they get a raw deal from that system.
Yet they have no viable path to independence. Rajoy, backed up by the courts, says a referendum is unconstitutional, and any attempt to change the constitution would be blocked by Rajoy’s People’s Party.
State of Emergency’
Sunday’s crackdown began at about 8:45 a.m. when police in riot gear arrived at a site in downtown Barcelona and ordered activists to leave. Surrounded by an angry crowd chanting, “Out of the way, we will vote,” officers blocked access to the public school building and pushed people away from the doors while Catalan police watched from the sidelines. The police then broke into the building and removed the ballot boxes. Prosecutors will take action against the Catalan police over their refusal to stop the vote, El Pais reported.
One gray-haired lady had blood running down her face as she emerged from the melee, while Catalan television showed images of riot police pushing protesters down stairs and wrestling with ballot organizers and demonstrators. Volunteers and ambulance attendants tended to the injured. The Catalan government said 337 people have been hurt.
“A cowardly prime minister has flooded our city with police,” Mayor Ada Colau said, calling on Rajoy to resign. “Barcelona, city of peace. Do not be afraid.”
Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido said in an interview on La Sexta television that only one of 70 police operations had involved anti-riot procedures, and insisted that the police action had been “proportionate.” He said the Catalan police had requested assistance in writing from the country’s other forces.