Catalan separatists determined to hold independence vote

BARCELONA, Sept 30 (AFP) - Catalan separatists showed determination Saturday to press ahead with an independence referendum banned by Madrid, occupying dozens of schools designated as polling stations to stop police from closing them down.

“In these hugely intense and hugely emotional moments, we sense that what we once thought was only a dream is within reach,” Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont told a crowd of cheering supporters on Friday evening, as he wrapped up his campaign.

Over in the town of L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, though, a different scene played out in a large conference hall.

There, some 2,000 people who oppose separating from Spain rallied at a meeting called by Ciudadanos, Catalonia's main opposition party.

The vote has stoked passions in the wealthy northeastern region, pitting Catalan leaders against the central government in one of the biggest crises to hit Spain since democracy was restored after the death of dictator Francisco Franco in 1975.

It has also sown divisions among Catalans themselves, with the region deeply split on independence, even if a large majority want to be allowed to settle the matter in a legal vote.

“There is nothing that justifies violating so basic a right as the right to vote,” said Omar Sanchis, a 29- year- old drama student, standing behind the railings of the Collaso i Gil school in Barcelona which he and others had occupied.

Authorities in Madrid have instructed police to ensure no votes are cast in a referendum that the courts have ruled unconstitutional.

For days, they have been seizing electoral items such as ballot papers while prosecutors have ordered the closure of websites linked to the vote and the detention of key members of the team organising the referendum.

A court on Wednesday ordered police to prevent the use of public buildings “for the preparation and organisation” of the referendum.

But those for the vote have mobilised.

On Friday, tractors paraded through Barcelona, some decked with the “Estelada”, the separatists' flag of red-and-yellow stripes with a white star on a blue chevron.

They and firefighters have vowed to protect polling stations.

As classes ended for the day, small groups of activists, including parents with their children, decided to peacefully occupy several schools in Barcelona where voting is scheduled to take place.

“I'm going to sleep here with my eldest son,” said Gisela Losa, a mother of three who was among a group of parents who had taken over the Reina Violant primary school in Barcelona's Gracia neighbourhood.