King Felipe of Spain lashed out against Catalan authorities on Tuesday in a rare televised statement, following the protest of a police crackdown on citizens following a hotly contested independence referendum.
“With their decisions, they have systematically undermined the rules approved legally and legitimately, showing an unacceptable disloyalty towards the powers of the state — a state that represents Catalan interests,” Felipe said.
Hundreds of thousands of Catalonians took to the streets after Spanish officials tried to prevent the ‘banned’ vote from taking place – with up to 700,000 gathered in Barcelona.
Protesters in Barcelona said they were motivated by rampant police violence during the vote – which resulted in 893 people injured while riot police raided polling stations – dragging away voters and spraying the crowd with rubber bullets.
“This is a protest against police violence and maintaining momentum after Sunday,” said firefighter Victor Noguer, 27.
“The streets will always be ours,” protesters chanted, some of them draped in the blue, yellow and red Estelada flag used by Catalan separatists.
CNN reports:
Officers from the Guardia Civil and the Catalan police force stood guard outside the local headquarters of the Spanish government in Barcelona, where hundreds of firefighters gathered. Other groups of protesters gathered outside the headquarters of the national police, shouting “Spanish police get out!“
In an interview with CNN at a police control center in the city, Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau condemned Rajoy’s decision to deploy national security forces as “seriously irresponsible.”
“Why is he throwing thousands of police officers against the population,” asked Colau, who does not support Catalan independence but was in favor of holding the referendum. “Why is he keeping thousands of police officers on standby in the city of Barcelona and in Catalonia? What is the message of fear he wants to send?”
On Tuesday the Guardia Civil Police union, the AGUC, filed a complaint with the Catalan high court against the Catalan police – claiming they failed in their duties by not enforcing a court ruling banning the referendum vote.
A second complaint was filed by the AGUC in connection with the eviction of 200 cops from a Hotel Villa, and calls for a judicial inquiry into claims that the mayor of Catalan threatened to yank the hotel’s license if they allowed Spanish national police to stay there.
Not clear cut
While the Catalan government says it earned the right to split from Spain – claiming 90% of voters on Sunday favored independence, turnout was low, at around 42%. Catalan authorities blame the police crackdown.
While it’s clear that Catalonia is divided on independence, President Carles Puigdemont have not yet declared a split. Puigdemont has called for international mediation.
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Hundreds of thousands of Catalonians took to the streets after Spanish officials tried to prevent the ‘banned’ vote from taking place – with up to 700,000 gathered in Barcelona.
Has Spain mattered to the world in any meaningful way since they lost their armada?
Catalans are net contributors to Spain’s GDP and they get nothing of equal value from Spain in general and Felipe in particular. No wonder Catalans want out of Spain’s shackles.
A lot of wealthy regions of a lot of countries in the world are net contributors to their countries GDP, that hardly means they all have the right to become independent. Catalans don´t get anything out of Spain? How about the right to teach Catalan at school as the first language (and not Castellano Spanish), their own police force and their own foreign embassies. Everything paid for by the courtesy of the Spanish taxpayer.
How about a minority in California decides tomorrow that the state should be independent. Against the will of the majority in California and against the will of the rest of the country. Also that split would be unconstitutional.
Still sounds good?
@Jesse j, how about Québécoise separatists decide that they just about had it with English Canada, hold a referendum, and make Quebec independent if the majority wants out. Oh, wait…that already happened a couple times and Ottawa did not send goons to beat the shit out of Quebecers. Never mind,..
https://tinyurl.com/y9jje4sz
Problem is the majority doesn´t want the independence. Police aggression was largely overstated by the way and people were using old fotos or faking them.
But hey, why don´t you just make a referendum about your second amendment rights and gun control and see how that works out because it seems to me the majority just had it with the NRA and mass shootings.
Well, the 2nd amendment rights and gun control referendum just happened a few months ago. Trump won, didn’t he? Btw, Las Vegas mass shooting is just another deep state false flag; like many others before LV.
Sorry to say but Trump didn´t win the popular vote. So going by your own standard the referendum would have gone against the 2nd amendment right.
If that doesn´t convince you during the last regional elections in Catalonia the parties against independence won 52%, the separatists 48%
Trump campaigned to win the presidency, not popular vote. Had the objective been popular vote to win presidency, his strategy would have had been different, no?
Apparently the assclown king (whose family collaborated with the fascists) thinks that his view of the government representing the people is more valid than the people’s own view.
We really don’t kill our politicians nearly as often as we should these days.