SPANISH CIVIL WAR 2
844 hurt as riot cops attack protesters Voters targeted at independence referendum
HUNDREDS of people have been hurt in a brutal police crackdown aimed at stopping the Catalan independence referendum.
Spanish police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at protesters and violently ejected voters from polling stations yesterday.
Catalonia’s regional government last night claimed 844 people were injured in the clashes. A spokesman said: “We should be counting votes, not victims of police repression.”
Police wearing body armour and helmets were filmed manhandling voters from polling stations and carting off ballot boxes.
In Barcelona, the region’s capital, many pro-independence protesters were left bleeding after rubber bullets were fired at a crowd.
Yet millions defied intimidation by casting votes, which could break up Spain. Barcelona mayor Ada Colau said: “All police operations against us, a people calling for rights and freedoms, must stop.”
Catalan justice minister Carles Mundo added: “Today the Spanish state has decided to attack its citizens. It is state violence”.
Some 7.5 million people live in Catalonia, in northeastern Spain, with about 1.6 million in Barcelona. Footage filmed in the city showed riot police hitting people with batons. Several are seen setting upon a man at the side of the crowd then bundling him away. Other officers then lash out, seemingly at random, against scores of people – most with their hands raised in a surrender gesture. In another video, riot police march into a crowd outside a polling station, shoving several to the ground, then storm inside and
Today the Spanish state has decided to attack its citizens, it is state violence CARLES MUNDO, CATALAN JUSTICE MINISTER, ON THE CLASHES
block the entrance. Police also smashed their way into a sports centre in Girona where Catalonia’s president Carles Puigdemont cast his ballot.
He blasted Spain’s Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy for using state forces to stop the vote. Mr Puigdemont said the “unjustified, disproportionate violence” showed a “dreadful image of Spain”, adding: “Shame on you, Rajoy.”
He has said he will start the process of breaking away from Spain immediately if there is a yes vote. But the national government in Madrid insisted the referendum – approved by the Catalan parliament – breaches the constitution, which says Spain is indivisible.
Mr Rajoy last night said he fulfilled his obligation to uphold the law. He said: “Today we have reason to trust in democracy, the division process has failed.” He accused the Catalan government of “misleading” its people, adding: “They knew the referendum was illegal.” Authorities said nine national police and three Civil Guard officers were hurt in clashes.
In one, officers were filmed hitting Catalan firefighters with truncheons to break their human chain defending voters.
The ballot also led to FC Barcelona’s home match against Las Palmas being held behind closed doors. Las Palmas had threatened to sew the national flag on to their strip. Barcelona have historic pro-independence links. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said Spain “must act to end [the violence] now”. He tweeted: “I urge Theresa May to appeal directly to Rajoy to end police violence in Catalonia and find political solution to this constitutional crisis.” Yet some 90% of polling stations were reported to be open, and Catalan government spokesman Jordi Turull believed millions of votes would be counted. He warned: “The Spanish state... will end up responding to the international courts.” The Foreign Office said the referendum was “a matter for the Spanish government and people”, adding: “We want to see Spanish law and the constitution respected and the law upheld.”