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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: 1, Flamebait) by jmorris on Wednesday October 04 2017, @04:54AM (3 children)
Whether this effort succeeds or fails, looking at the big picture it is clear the old trend of ever larger unions heading toward the One World Government dreamed of by Progressives, Socialists and Banksters has reversed. Now it is all about larger entities coming under increasing pressure to maintain their current size against independence movements seeking more local authority and outright division of existing nation states.
Too many "nations" are just lines on a map with no cultural, social or racial identity, or historical accidents of wars often not even directly involving the country. It is worse in the Middle East where this was done intentionally (read about Sikes Picot) but Europe has a lot of this as well. The troubles after the Cold War broke some of the artificial constructs apart but there seem to be a desire to break some more up. Apparently large numbers of "Spaniards" do not think of themselves as such, so we could see three countries there, perhaps one of them still named Spain. The United Kingdom apparently isn't any more "United" than Spain so eventually it could shatter into three or more parts.
And Mad Merkel has probably already doomed the EU project, it will wobble along on inertia a few years more, a decade at most, before more fragments fall off. Only reason it will take so long for the next exit is the Euro problem. Easy to merge to a single currency, remonitizing local currencies again is going to painful enough to stall any more exits until the pain becomes unbearable.
And here in the U.S. it is hard to see anything "United" about us, quarreling tribes on the verge of advancing to violent skirmishes is a better description. American vs Progressive, Urban vs Rural, White vs everybody else, Rich vs middle vs Poor, only thing preventing a breakup might be deciding which lines to break along.
A good worldwide economic shock hits, and we still totter on the edge of one, and all bets are off worldwide. The balloon could go up anywhere.
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(Score: 2) by choose another one on Wednesday October 04 2017, @08:44AM (2 children)
Mmmm... maybe.
I think the part of the picture that is missing there is that globalisation (the neo-capitalist banksters wet dream) is still happening and isn't obviously failing. I think it is actually a driver behind the nation-state fragmentation. As the free trade, free movement of whatever areas/blocs increase in size, there is less and less reason for culturally distinct areas to stay together as part of a nation-state.
It is notable that most (all?) of the recently fragmented (or desiring to be so) bits of states in Europe have either joined the EU or want to, or want to stay in it. The EU already has a (admittedly crude and not very effective) mechanism to even up finances between rich and poor states, and when it inevitably has to improve this to maintain the Euro currency even the poor regions will have no reason to stick within their current nations.
When your currency, laws, budgets, taxes, citizenship, all derive from the giant multi-nation trading bloc, what is actually left for a nation to do?
Yes, it is all breaking apart at one level, but maybe that is _because_ it has all converged at another level.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 04 2017, @10:09AM
This. The fact that Catalonia wants to secede from Spain but remain part of the EU should be hailed as one of the best examples of the success of the EU. Instead, the EC keeps repeating the same line that regions cannot leave their country without leaving the entire EU block, proving once again that the EU cares only about its politicians, not its citizens.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 04 2017, @08:28PM
i agree. most people are being domesticated too. hopefully governance will be voluntary via smart contract soon.