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Police and would-be voters have clashed during a Catalan independence referendum held on Sunday:
Scenes of chaos and violence unfolded in Catalonia as an independence referendum deemed illegal by Madrid devolved quickly on Sunday. As police followed orders from the central government to put a stop to the vote, they fired rubber bullets at unarmed protesters and smashed through the glass at polling places, reports The Associated Press. Three hundred and thirty-seven people were injured, some seriously, according to Catalonia's government spokesman.
Spain's Interior Ministry said a dozen police officers were injured. NPR's Lauren Frayer reports from Barcelona that some people were throwing rocks down at officers from balconies. Yet the violence came from all directions.
"Horrible scenes," Lauren reports. "Police dragging voters out of polling stations, some by the hair."
Scuffles erupted as riot police forcefully removed hundreds of would-be voters from polling places across Barcelona, the Catalan capitol, reports AP. Nevertheless, many people, managed to successfully cast their ballots across the region after waiting in lines hundreds-of-people-deep, including the elderly and families with small children, says Reuters.
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said that he did not acknowledge the vote and called it "illegal".
Also at NYT, Bloomberg, The Washington Post, and BBC:
Catalan emergency officials say 761 people have been injured as police used force to try to block voting in Catalonia's independence referendum.
Update: Catalan referendum: Catalonia has 'won right to statehood'
Spain Vows to Enforce the Law in Rebel Catalonia
Catalonia Leaders Seek to Make Independence Referendum Binding
Previously: Spain Trying to Stop Catalonia Independence Referendum
(Score: 4, Informative) by FakeBeldin on Tuesday October 03 2017, @01:29PM (5 children)
What's interesting is that Rajoy's actions in this seem (to commentators) to resemble Trumpian actions.
He sent in an overwhelming police force, which acted aggressively. (you can Google yourself for the pictures of elderly folk bleeding from being beaten up by the police.) The numbers sent were so big, that they needed to put cruise ships in port cities to house the agents. These agents were sent off as if going to the war, cheered on and waved out with flags. Basically, Rajoy seems to be pandering strongly to his base, who apparently love the idea of sending police forces from one side of the nation to another side to repress those folk there, because.... erm....
There seem to be a lot of folk in Spain / a vocal few in a few places in Spain that feel that "those bloody Catalans ought to be taught a lesson."
The background is also convoluted. I do not wish to give the impression I have a full (or even a half) view of the situation. My limited understanding so far:
- Franco aggressively repressed, including the Catalans
- Following Franco, there were weak governments, that needed support
- These weak governments gave the Catalans progressively more power towards independence in exchange for support
- The last government made a deal with the Catalans to gain even more privileges.
- The current Head Honcho was in opposition, both politically and to extending more privileges
- Change of government, a court struck down the politically agreed extension, and Rajoy's base is against this sort of thing
Both sides are playing games with reporting on the situation. The Catalans seem to be winning / have won that battle in the eyes of most non-Spanish, while in the eyes of the base of support for Rajoy, apparently he is winning.
TL;DR: Spain has a strategy of polarisation and repression, which apparently sells well to sufficiently many voters in Spain. Catalan has a strategy of appearing non-confrontational and adhering to democratic principles. This seems to sell well to people in western democracies.
Peaceful conclusion seems very far off currently.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 03 2017, @01:42PM (4 children)
Where is Trump using the police like this? Really, I'd like to know. Did he send more of them to beat up the pipeline protesters like Obama was doing before him (I'm guessing probably, although I wouldn't call that a Trumpian tactic considering it was an existing policy)?
(Score: 1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 03 2017, @01:55PM
I agree, GP is ridiculously misguided at the least. And a dangerous demagogue at the worst. It's nonsense like that that leads to an asshole opening fire at a congressional softball game.
(Score: 5, Informative) by LoRdTAW on Tuesday October 03 2017, @04:20PM (1 child)
Jesus christ, does anyone read anymore? The Army Corps of Engineers owned the land the protesters were occupying and they were the ones who called in police to remove them. Homeland security then got involved. The protesters bought a case against the project owners and that went to federal court. The Obama administration stepped in and STOPPED the pipeline construction temporarily. This wasn't a federal case until it was escalated from the local level.
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Tuesday October 03 2017, @10:25PM
They read Facebook shares from propaganda pages.
(Score: 2) by FakeBeldin on Thursday October 05 2017, @03:30PM
The point of the commentators was that Rajoy is populistically pandering to his base, at the expense of trying to actually address the intricacies of the situation.
For some reason, these commentators likened that to Trump's behaviour.