Spain holds its collective breath as tension mounts in Catalonia where voters already have occupied polling stations in advance of Sunday's referendum on independence, already declared illegal by the Spanish Constitutional Court.
Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, with the support of the court, is determined to prevent this vote on Catalonia’s independence from Spain and had ordered local police to block entrances at all polling stations across the region.
Supporters of the self-determination referendum, that separatist leaders say will go ahead on October 1st, on Friday started to occupy schools that have been selected as polling stations.
On September 6th, the Catalan regional parliament passed a law to hold the referendum despite this being banned by the Spanish Constitutional Court.
International press has generally been pro the vote despite its illegality and Rajoy has lost international support at each step he has taken to prevent the referendum vote.
Most of the inhabitants of Catalonia, which produces 20% of Spain's Gross Domestic Product, want to have a legal referendum, although they are divided down the middle on independence.
Pro-referendum websites have been closed down, voting software disabled, voting materials confiscated and more than a dozen Catalan pro-referendum politicians have been arrested.
Rajoy has flooded this northeast Spanish region with Guardia Civil but whether they will be asked to help local police block 2,300 polling stations remains to be seen. The Catalans seem prepared for a show-down with sporadic demonstrations already adding to the palpable tension.
The government’s attempts to control the upsurge of indignation has failed with seized ballot papers being replaced with new, the stiff fines imposed on politicians being paid with help from the public and blocked websites being replaced with new ones.
The media has been referring to the Catalan stand-off as Spain’s ‘worst political crises since the end of the Franco dictatorship four decades ago,’ with non-Catalan Spanish concerned at the potential financial damage if Catalonia gains independence.
More than 70% of Catalonians want to settle independence question once and for all in a legal referendum, according to opinion polls, but Mariano Rajoy refuses, repeatedly stating that any such referendum would contravene the constitution that Catalans overwhelmingly ratified in 1978.
The UN Human Rights Council issued a statement Thursday criticising Spanish government efforts to block a referendum on independence in Catalonia.
In the council’s statement, UN human rights experts say, “Regardless of the lawfulness of the referendum, the Spanish authorities have a responsibility to respect those rights that are essential to democratic societies.”
The statement notes that authorities have searched printing establishments, seized referendum material, blocked websites, stopped political meetings and deployed more than 4,000 police officers to the Catalan region. They also express concern that leaders of the mass protests have been charged with sedition and about the arrest of politicians.
“The measures we are witnessing are worrying because they appear to violate fundamental individual rights, cutting off public information and the possibility of debate at a critical moment for Spain’s democracy,” the UN human rights experts say.
The hashtag #FreeTweety has become a worldwide trending topic on Twitter, the yellow bird on a ferry housing Guradia Civil becoming an emblem of pro-referendum Catalans
Columns of tractors waving the lone-star flag of Catalan independence are converging on the region’s towns in support of Sunday’s banned referendum. Supporters cheered as a column of vehicles, dubbed a Tractorada, rolled into the capital, Barcelona, streaming past the famous Sagrada Familia church.
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