Spain and Catalonia more divided than ever

Sunday’s Catalan independence referendum has opened a deep political schism between Madrid and the region around Spain’s second-largest city.

Catalan officials say that 2.26 million defied the central government’s best efforts to frustrate them and cast ballots in the disputed plebiscite — and more than 92 per cent voted in favour of the region, which accounts for roughly a fifth of Spain’s gross domestic product, going its own way.

Officials in the local health ministry say that nearly 900 were injured when the federal police, the Guardia Civil, fired rubber bullets, wielded batons and forcibly removed voters from polling stations. Some 30 officers were also injured in the violence that has shocked Spanish and Catalans alike.

“The Guardia Civil were always [former dictator General Francisco] Franco’s bully boys,” one woman told Gulf News yesterday. “Now they’re [Spanish Prime Minister Mariano] Rajoy’s bully boys.”

Rajoy had raised the stakes in the weeks leading up to the referendum, ordering extra Guardia Civil into the region to augment the Catalan regional police, the Mossos d’Esquadra as well as the Policia Local, Barcelona’s city police. Both local forces were not involved in Sunday’s violence. The Guardia Civil also clashed with local firefighters and protesting farmers as the police returned to billets on two ships docked in Barcelona port.

Because of the violence, the scheduled La Liga football game between Barcelona and Las Palmas was played in an empty stadium. The visiting team had insisted that its strip would also feature a Spanish flag as a sign of unity with the Madrid government.

Barcelona defender Gerard Pique said he is ready to stand down from international duty with Spain if he is deemed a “problem” by the national team coach or the Spanish Football Federation as a result of his support for Catalan independence.

Pique was pictured casting his vote in the election earlier in the day.

“You vote yes, no, or leave it blank, but you vote,” the Barcelona-born defender said. “In the Franco era we couldn’t defend our ideas. I am, and I feel Catalan, and I am very proud of the people, of their behaviour, like in the last seven years.”