Spanish police attacks mistake or part of a plan?

LONDON (AP) — Spain’s image on the world stage has been tarnished by the worldwide broadcast of images showing its police attacking would-be voters in Catalonia, and those tactics have not slowed the Catalan government’s march toward independence.

So the question lingers: Why, in the age of the smartphone, would Spain use force this way in order to quash a disputed independence referendum? Why not just declare the vote illegal and ignore it? Why hand the independence movement a public relations victory by using police to attack women, children and the elderly?

Analysts say the Spanish government apparently felt so threatened by the accelerating independence movement that it believed a show of force was needed to make it abundantly clear that even harsher tactics would be used if needed to keep Spain intact. The government was also confident, apparently with reason, that European Union leaders would not condemn the tactics Spain used to help prevent more splintering of the 28-nation bloc.

Chatham House director Robin Niblett said the Spanish government felt it had to act despite the consequences because it could not let the vote, suspended by the Constitutional Court, proceed.

“I’m sure they expected it to get ugly,” he said. “I’m sure they knew there was a real risk of it looking like democracy was being suppressed. But they know they have support in the rest of Spain, so the political risk domestically was worth taking.”

He conceded the cost was high because of the disturbing images that emerged.

“They didn’t want shots of police pulling women by the hair,” he said. “That’s stupid, that’s really frustrating to them. In a way that becomes the story.”

Spain’s leaders have not backpedaled or apologized for the use of force, an indication they are willing to take whatever international opprobrium comes their way. In fact, criticism from Europe’s leaders has been relatively light, coming mostly from opposition figures.

Andrew Dowling, a specialist in Catalan history at Cardiff University in Wales, said “any government in the world” would have taken similar action if under direct threat.

“The Spanish government felt it had to stop the vote because they knew within 48 hours the Catalan Parliament would declare independence and then there is a really big crisis,” he said.