SPAIN’s national government has “crossed a red line” by arresting high-level officials of the Catalan Government, according to the president of the independence-seeking state.

Carles Puigdemont was speaking after officers from Spain’s civil guard stormed more than 20 government buildings in Barcelona and arrested 14 people, including some high-ranking Catalan government officials, in Madrid’s latest bid to stop its independence referendum.

In a televised address, Puigdemont said: “On October 1 we are called to defend democracy from a repressive and intimidating regime.

“We condemn and reject the totalitarian and anti-democratic attitude of the Spanish State.

“The Spanish Government has de facto suspended the government of Catalonia. We denounce the illegitimate suspension and intervention of the Catalan Government coming from a Spanish executive that does not respect the fundamental principles of democracy.”

The Catalan president said police had also conducted raids on the homes of government officials and newsrooms, and added: “They’ve crossed the red line. We give all our support to all the people arrested.”

Puigdemont insisted the referendum would go ahead and that the Catalan response to Madrid’s attempts to thwart it would remain peaceful.

In an oblique reference to the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, he said: “We will go out with ballots and we will use them, in a democratic exercise that should contrast with the attitude of those that only speak the authoritative language that, for so long, influenced Spain’s government.

“What is happening in Catalonia is not happening anywhere else in the EU. To all democrats that today feel outraged, here in Catalonia or abroad, we confirm our commitment with democracy, we won’t accept a return to the past and we won’t accept not to be able to decide about our future in freedom and democracy.”

Puigdemont said the police operations were unlawful and are aimed at preventing Catalans from voting.

Hundreds of Catalans gathered to protest the raids outside government offices in the state capital, Barcelona. Some sat down in the street to block police cars, while others scuffled with officers.

The Catalan Government confirmed that Josep Maria Jove, secretary general of economic affairs, was among those arrested. He is second-in-command to the Catalan vice-president and economy chief, Oriol Junqueras.

Police and judicial authorities declined to give details of the operation, saying a judge has placed a secrecy order on it.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said that his conservative government was determined to prevent the ballot and that the Catalan Government was going against the Spanish constitution by holding the vote. Rajoy added: “No democratic state in the world would accept what these people are proposing.”

Douglas Chapman MP, an SNP member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Catalonia, told The National he agreed with Puigdemont: “I think Madrid has stepped over a red line – it’s not democracy in the European tradition.

“To use such heavy-handed tactics for what has been to date a peaceful consideration of a nation’s self-determination, certainly a line has been crossed. The attitude and actions of Madrid may well backfire on them in the longer term.”

Chapman said Catalonia had gone through stages of gaining support for the poll among its own government, civic heads and the population, but Madrid had refused to engage in any “meaningful or mature way”, and added: “I would hope that the international community would look at Catalonia’s actions in a very positive light and be more critical of the actions taken by the Spanish Government.”