The news from Catalonia -- at the time of
this writing, Sunday night in America -- is not good. There has been violent
confrontation over the independence referendum.
Hundreds injured in Catalonia as Spanish police crack down
on referendum vote...
Police acting on orders from the Spanish government to stop the voting across the country’s northeastern region clashed with Catalans who were attempting to stop them from confiscating ballots. Videos that emerged Sunday on social media appear to show police using brutal force on people attempting to cast their vote.
Catalonia’s health service said Sunday night that at least 844 people were injured today by the evening -- nearly half of them in the Barcelona region, where police fired rubber bullets near at least one polling station, according to The Associated Press. Spanish authorities said 11 police officers were injured in the melees.
-- ABC News
Police acting on orders from the Spanish government to stop the voting across the country’s northeastern region clashed with Catalans who were attempting to stop them from confiscating ballots. Videos that emerged Sunday on social media appear to show police using brutal force on people attempting to cast their vote.
Catalonia’s health service said Sunday night that at least 844 people were injured today by the evening -- nearly half of them in the Barcelona region, where police fired rubber bullets near at least one polling station, according to The Associated Press. Spanish authorities said 11 police officers were injured in the melees.
-- ABC News
For weeks, the Spanish state had been doing all it could to
obstruct and suppress the then upcoming October 1st vote. The Madrid
government had been threatening people, arresting Catalan
officials, and had stepped in to take over the province's finances.
Spain has taken control of Catalonia's finances to prevent
funds being used for an independence referendum it deems illegal, a move that
limits the region's autonomy and puts in doubt the payment of thousands of
public workers' salaries. --TheLocal.es, September
20, 2017
On October 1st, Madrid followed through with its threats of force
should the referendum go ahead.
What immediately comes to mind is that Madrid did not act as
forcefully as Franco would have. Franco would have sent in tanks and just
killed people. The present Spanish response might have been thuggish, but it
was measured. Likewise, the response of the Catalan people and their representatives
were also measured.
It was not totally clear how the vote was going to swing.
Pro-Madrid media were accusing the Catalans of suppressing local
anti-Independence sympathies; and there seemed to be a degree of truth to that,
as the data indicated. Still, however, Catalonia had a long history of striving
for independence. There seemed to be real local sympathy for their cause. While
most anticipated a victory for the pro-independence side, there was also the
precedent of how the referendum for Scottish independence failed in 2014.
Recently, even the Catalan government produced some disturbing poll results.
Opinion polls are hard to come by but the clearest
indication came in July, when a public survey commissioned by the Catalan
government suggested 41% were in favour and 49% were opposed to independence.
-- BBC
A check of this
page, set up by the Catalan government -- which has a readable Abstract in
English -- showed that the matterwas not settled as late as July [See page
11& 12 of pdf file]. At that point, theIndependentistas may
not been as representative of the Catalans, as a whole, as it appeared. On the
other hand, the referendum results today may only have demonstrated the
inaccuracy of polls, as breaking news, at this time, seems to show.
Initial reports say that the referendum was 90% in favor of
secession. This is the worst of all of Madrid's fears. Even if there was local
social pressure to minimize or limit the pro-Madrid vote, a 90% result
indicates a massive sentiment to remove Spanish rule from Catalonia, even if
the turnout was low. And that low turnout can be blamed on Spanish police
interference.
Spanish riot police fired rubber bullets and seized ballot
boxes from polling stations in Catalonia on Sunday as thousands flooded the
streets to vote in an independence referendum banned by Madrid. --
The Telegraph
Spain will soon be in a meltdown of sorts. The Madrid government
is constitutionally required to preserve the unity of Spain. The Catalan
government has obliged itself to act upon the results of the referendum within
48 hours.
There is a problem: Spain’s democratic constitution of
1978, which was approved by more than 90% of Catalan voters, gave wide autonomy
to the regions but affirmed “the indissoluble unity of the Spanish nation”.
Only the Spanish parliament can change the constitution. -- The
Economist
Meanwhile, contrariwise:
[T]he regional [Catalan] Parliament has committed to making
the result binding within 48 hours, which could translate any approval for a
Catalan republic into a unilateral declaration of independence. Under Spanish
law, however, the national government could still invoke emergency powers to
take full administrative control of Catalonia. -- NY Times, Sept
26, 2017
What happens how is anyone's guess.
Most interesting is how the European Union has steadfastly taken
Madrid's side. Separatism cannot be allowed to prosper while the EU is trying
to centralize everything. It sets a bad precedent.
Jean-Claude Piris, the former director general of the EU
Council’s legal service, poured cold water on Catalonia’s plot to hold an
independence referendum.
The Frenchman warned the EU would not welcome an
independent Catalonia as a member state and called on Brussels to speak out.
-- Express, June
3, 2017
And so, today:
[T]he European Union remained conspicuously silent on the
police tactics, which saw masked officers smash their way into polling stations
and forcibly remove ballot boxes. -- The
Telegraph,Oct 2, 2017
One Catalan politician has finally spoken up to get angry at the EU
for their silence.
Silence from the European Union in the face of a violent
referendum in Spain has been condemned with one furious politician saying he no
longer wants to be European. -- The Daily
Express -- October 2, 2017
Another Catalan noted:
Another said: “Do not call me neither spanish nor european
any more ... I M CATALAN !!!” --The Daily
Express, October 2, 2017
The centralizing bureaucrats of Brussels do not want independent
nations.
The Catalan independence referendum is a much bigger issue
for the EU than Brexit -- The Independent, September
30, 2017
And one Scots Observer finally put all the pieces together.
“The EU want a fascist United States of Europe. viva
Catalan.” -- The Daily
Express
It seems the Catalonia is not merely a problem for Spain, but for
all of the European bureaucrats. n order for Catalonia to be free, Catalonia
may not only have to defy Madrid, but also the European Union. No longer will
the Catalans have the option of trading subservience to Madrid to subservience to
Brussels as an option. If Catalonia wants to be free, she may have to decide
for total freedom.
If nothing else comes out of this referendum, that alone will be
worth it.
Mike Konrad is the pen name of an American
who wishes he had availed himself more fully of the opportunity to learn
Spanish in high school, lo those many decades ago. He writes on the Arabs of
South America athttp://latinarabia.com.