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October 2nd, 2017 
Awake Goy 
nsnbc : 90 percent of those who voted – and could vote while police cracked down on polling stations – voted yes for Catalonia’s independence from Spain, said the Catalonian government. The federal government in Madrid had declared the referendum illegal, deployed national police, and calls the referendum null and void.
“I went to vote and look what that nice police officer from Madrid gave to me, isn’t that pretty?”
Some 2.3 million people took part in the referendum, said Catalonia’s government spokesman Jordi Turull. That represents a turnout of 42.3 percent of Catalonia’s 5.34 million voters which is a massive turnout considering that the referendum was declared illegal, police was out in force – intimidating – and that the federal government had done all it could – short of open civil war – to disrupt the process. This includes storming of Catalan ministries, arrests of ministers, mayors, …. and other tactics that remind those with one eye on history about Spain’s fascist past.
Of those who took part, 2.02 million Catalans voted “yes” to the question: “Do you want Catalonia to become an independent state in the form of a republic?” The preliminary results and the clear mandate pave the way for the region’s leader to declare independence in the coming days, despite the Spanish government ruling the referendum illegal.
The brutal scenes of police cracking down on the referendum plunged the EU into a new crisis after hundreds of people – more than 800 according to official reports – were injured in the violent stand-offs with Spanish federal police. Images of officers in riot gear firing rubber bullets into crowds and beating would-be voters with batons as they queued at polling stations shocked many “Europeans.
However, the grim truth is that this may just be the beginning, and that other EU members would most likely respond with similar brutality. Imagine the Free State Bavaria wanting to reclaim its independence from Germany, the city of Fredericia attempting to reestablish its Republic of Councils, declaring independence from Denmark, or Spain’s Basque region – but stop – there has been a decades-long armed conflict there already. Europe is fundamentally as prone to fascism as – let’s say China or Chile. Barcelona 2017 will by many an Anarchist and Syndicalist be seen as the year that clarified that there is a need for a “resistance” in Europe and resistance within the not-so-democratic European Union.
The Catalan government claimed 844 people were injured. There was widespread condemnation of the Spanish government’s attempt to crack down on the vote, which Catalan authorities had called despite the courts ruling it illegal. However, the European Union remained conspicuously silent on the police tactics, which saw masked officers smash their way into polling stations and forcibly remove ballot boxes.
Catalan Prime Minister Carles Puigdemont said the region had “won the right to an independent state” after “millions” turned out to vote in a banned independence referendum. “With this day of hope and suffering, the citizens of Catalonia have won the right to an independent state in the form a republic,” he said in a televised announcement after polls had closed. Before the results were announced, he said he would keep his pledge to declare independence unilaterally within 48 hours of the vote if the “Yes” side won the referendum.
“Today the Spanish state wrote another shameful page in its history with Catalonia,” Puigdemont said, adding that he would appeal to the European Union to look into alleged human rights violations during Sunday’s vote.
Violence broke out across Catalonia as armoured police moved in to break up the vote. Madrid had brought in 4,000 officers from Spain’s national police to help squash the referendum – their true face or the face of their puppeteers in Madrid was unmasked when they were seen disgracing themselves, fighting with elderly voters, some of whom were left bleeding, and dragging young women away from polling stations by their hair. Amid tense scenes, uniformed Catalan firefighters appeared to act as human shields to protect voters from advancing lines of police.
European leaders were also noticeably silent. The only voice emerging from Brussels was that of the Belgium prime minister, Charles Michel. On Twitter, he called for political dialogue to resolve the crisis, insisting: “Violence can never be the answer!” Spain, meanwhile, did not waver in its assertion that the referendum – which was ordered suspended by the Spanish constitutional court – is illegal, and that its hand has been forced by a Catalan government it claims is engaged in a coup. Spain’s foreign minister Alfonso Dastis said the violence was “unfortunate” and “unpleasant” but “proportionate”, blaming the violence exclusively on Mr Puigdemont and his regional government. That’s Europe today – EU-style freedom that is bound to lead to resistance.
CH/L – nsnbc 02.10.2017
Source Article from https://nsnbc.me/2017/10/02/eu-style-freedom-90-voted-yes-850-were-injured-in-crackdown-on-catalonia-independence-referendum/
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