DEFIANT Catalans turned out to vote in their millions in the hotly disputed independence referendum yesterday, but hundreds of them were injured as Spain’s Civil Guard and National Police unleashed a torrent of violence that shocked the world.
Riot police fired rubber bullets and used lengthy batons leaving an estimated 500 people injured, some seriously, according to Jordi Turull, a Catalan government spokesman.
He said the violence was “very grave and unprecedented” and told people who had been injured to present their complaints to the Mossos d’Esquadra (Catalan police), whose approach to voters was in marked contrast to that of the national forces.
Thousands of videos and photographs showing bloodied voters swamped social media. Many showed officers using their batons on peaceful protesters sitting across roads to stop the police reaching polling
stations.
Male, female, young and old fell victim to the violence. One person is undergoing surgery after being hit in the eye by a rubber bullet. Turull said the Catalan parliament had passed a law banning the use of rubber bullets and asked police to be “consistent with this decision”.
St Andrews academic Professor Clara Ponsati, who is seconded to Catalonia as education minister, was dragged across the ground at her
ministry.
Turull said: “In no European government does the police attack ministers,” adding that Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy was responsible for the violence, along with Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido.
“Today’s damage is exclusively their responsibility,” he said.
Catalan President Carles Puigdemont, whose own polling station was raided by police, condemned Spain’s “unjustified, irrational and
irresponsible” use of violence to stop the referendum.
“Police brutality will forever shame those who are justifying it,” said Puigdemont, who was forced to vote at another location.
An international delegation of observers that includes SNP MPs Douglas Chapman and Joanna Cherry, criticised Spain’s use of force.
Delegation spokesman, the former Slovenian foreign minister Dimitri Rupel, said it was “very worrying”, adding: “The morning had started well, and we were optimistic, because we saw many people impatient to go to vote at the polling stations, and also because there were ballots and ballots,
“However, we now see that there are many problems because the Spanish police try to prevent the vote using force, closing electoral colleges.”
Ada Colau, the mayor of Barcelona – scene of some of the worst violence – called for Rajoy’s resignation, a call that was trending on social media last night under the hashtag
#RajoyDIMISION.
The Spanish government’s representative in Catalonia, Enric Millo, blamed the Catalan government for the police operation: “We have been forced to do what we did not want to do.”
Polls closed at 8pm Spanish time and Turull added: “This evening we will count millions of ballots.”
Catalan Foreign Minister Raul Romeva tweeted: “The Spanish govt has shown us their arguments: repression & violence. We will continue to show ours: ballot boxes, votes,
democracy & peace.”
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