Madrid prepares for clashes as Catalonians take to the streets
THE Madrid government is promising to act “with prudence and proportionality” following police violence earlier in the month.
Local newspaper El País quoted Spanish government sources saying the plan is to ease Catalonia’s former leaders out of their posts, fearful of repeating the scenes of street clashes involving police being beamed around the world as occurred during the Oct 1 referendum.
Volunteers to heed a call to mount the civil disobedience hinted at by Carles Puigdemont, Catalonia’s ousted president, are not hard to find.
“If they say that Puigdemont and the speaker of parliament are going to be arrested, we will defend them. It will be peaceful resistance. Let it be they who do the violence,” Sara, a 17-yearold, told The Sunday Telegraph.
“We’ve declared independence and now come the consequences. It will be humiliating if we don’t struggle,” agreed her 19-year-old friend, Paula.
Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, the deputy prime minister widely regarded as the best communicator in the conservative Popular Party government, has been entrusted with the key role of coordinating direct rule from Madrid, but she will face a difficult task.
Marti Olivella, a veteran activist imprisoned in the Seventies for refusing compulsory military service, was teaching volunteers techniques of passive resistance in a park next to Barcelona’s Sants railway station on Saturday.
“I think it’s an illusion to think that people who have led us this far and declared independence are going to just walk away because a law is published,” Mr Olivella said in reference to the imposition of Article 155 and the Spanish government’s dismissal entire ministerial team.
“Don’t forget that two million people put their physical safety on the line to go out and vote.”
Eva Casas, a 54-year-old bookseller from Barcelona, recalls what she calls the Spanish security forces’ “terrorist violence” as they attempted to break up the referendum. “Today we are a republic. Tomorrow the forces of occupation will try and stop us. We are Spain’s last colony.
“The police came in to polling stations and we weren’t afraid. People took the blows, went to hospital and came out in slings to cast their votes.”
But the organisers of a march against independence also hope to take over the streets of Barcelona today.
Alex Ramos, vice president of Catalan Civil Society, said he is expecting up to a million people to celebrate what he called the “end of the surreal and disturbing adventure by the nationalist political class”.
Britain’s Foreign Office has issued a warning to tourists to “exercise caution” in Catalonia. of
Janet Daley: Page 16 Editorial Comment: Page 17 Catalonia’s