Catalan leader urges EU to respond to vote crisis

President calls for international help to tackle ballot dispute

Catalonia’s leader has called for international mediation and for the European Union “to stop looking the other way” in the region’s bid to secede from Spain, a day after a violent crackdown by Spanish police trying to block referendum voting.

Carles Puigdemont also said he would file a complaint against Spanish police after officers fired rubber bullets, smashed into polling stations on Sunday and beat back protesters with batons.

Mr Puigdemont gave no further details on his legal plans to challenge police, but urged Spain’s national police reinforcements to leave the northeastern region.

However, Spanish authorities commended officers, saying they had acted professionally and that their response was proportionate.

Spain’s interior minister said the 5,000 extra officers deployed to Catalonia would stay as long as necessary.

Catalan officials say an overwhelming majority of voters supported independence from Spain, but the central government in Madrid has repeatedly condemned the referendum as illegal, unconstitutional and invalid.

The EU and most governments in the 28-nation bloc have not backed Catalonia’s independence movement, fearful that it could unleash a wave of secessionist movements on the continent.

But Mr Puigdemont called for the EU to consider Catalonia’s desire to break away from Spain as a regional problem, and urged Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy’s government to accept mediation.

“The European Union has to stop looking the other way,” Mr Puigdemont said. “This is not a domestic issue. The need for mediation is evident.”

Earlier, an EU statement implored both sides to pull back from confrontation in favour of dialogue.

More than 890 people were injured, most of them not seriously, in confrontations with police trying to shut down the voting. More than 30 police officers were also injured.

The Catalan president said the regional parliament plans to declare independence in the next days.

The referendum debacle brought Spain and Catalonia closer to a potentially disastrous showdown as each side said Sunday’s events proved them right and neither looked prepared to cede ground.

Picture: Getty. Students hold a protest against the violence that marred the referendum vote.