The intransigence of the Catalan regional government and the government in Madrid under Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, has led to 844 members of the public being injured by police as Catalans tried as best they could to vote on their future, under or outside of Spanish control.
Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont said, "The unjustified use of violence... by the Spanish state will not stop the will of the Catalan people," speaking of unjustified violence dished out by the Guardia Civil and the National Police who had flooded the region to back up the local police force, Mossos d'Esquadra.
Rajoy is sticking to the constitution and "the indissoluble unity of the Spanish nation, the common and indivisible homeland of all Spaniards," but Catalans want to vote on their own future and Carles Puigdemont has followed this path despite its illegality.
Of 465 people injured and treated by the health service, two are in a serious condition and remain in hospital, one of whom was hit by a rubber bullet and lost an eye. Madrid says 12 policemen have been injured and three people have been arrested..
Rubber bullets were fired into a crowd in Barcelona as thousands of voters tried to enter polling stations, many of which had been cordoned off.
According to Catalonia's President Carles Puigdemont, this "unjustified, disproportionate and irresponsible violence," involved the use of batons, rubber bullets and physical force to prevent Catalans from voting, adding that “the external image of the Spanish state today has reached a level of shame that will accompany it forever."
This referendum had been banned by the government with back up from the court, saying it would be illegal to have a vote on partition from Spain and that the Catalan police, the Mossos d'Esquadra, must respect orders from Madrid.
Not all local police obeyed orders from Madrid and this has been used as an excuse by the government for sending in the Guardia Civil and the National Police force, claiming it was forced into this deployment.
As the Mossos d'Esquadra closed only 92 of over 2,000 polling stations in Catalonia, this gave the national forces the opportunity to force entry to these sites, cutting chains, breaking down doors, seizing voting forms and trashing ballot boxes, with Spain's Deputy Prime Minister, Soraya Saenz de Santamaria, saying that police, many of them wearing balaclavas, had "acted with professionalism and in a proportionate way."
The Ramon Llull school in Barcelona was the scene of a sustained operation, with police using axes to smash their way in, rushing the crowd and firing rubber bullets.
The Guardia Civil command said its officers were, "resisting harassment and provocation" while carrying out their duties "in defence of the law."
Spain's Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said police had "acted with professionalism and in a proportionate way."
One local said that "police started to kick people, young and old", adding, "Today, I have seen the worst actions that a government can do to the people of its own country."
Whoever is right and wrong, it is clear that diplomacy and political discussion broke down a good while ago, to be replaced with Spanish policemen using batons to thrash local Catalans wishing to vote for their futures.
The ballot papers contain just one question: "Do you want Catalonia to become an independent state in the form of a republic?" There are two boxes: Yes or No.
The last vote on this topic was slightly in favour of remaining with Spain but Rajoy’s hard-line approach, which has been criticised by significant media titles in Europe and the US, has swung opinion poll results towards independence.
The European Commission has yet to issue a statement on Sunday's violence, or the result which, of those that managed to cast a vote, 90% now are in favour of independence.
For scenes of police violence, see:
