Posted on 10/01/2017 5:12:43 AM PDT by Enlightened1
Barcelona (AFP) - Spanish riot police fired rubber bullets and forced their way into activist-held polling stations in Catalonia on Sunday as thousands flooded the streets to vote in an independence referendum banned by Madrid.
Scuffles broke out as police moved in to seal off polling stations and seize ballot boxes to prevent people from voting across the wealthy northeastern region where more than 5.3 million people have been called upon to have their say on independence from Spain.
In central Barcelona, riot police forced their way inside a school to seize ballot boxes, charging at demonstrators who were sitting on the ground blocking their way, witnesses said.
Witnesses said police in Barcelona also fired rubber bullets, with one demonstrator showing AFP a leg injury he suffered.
Catalan president Carles Puigdemont blasted the "unjustified violence" as emergency services said 38 people were hurt.
Riot police also stormed a polling station near Girona, smashing the glass doors of the sports centre where Puigdemont was due to vote, then cutting a chain to force their way in.
Inside, they bagged up ballot boxes in black bin liners, wrapping them in police tape before hauling them away.
But the regional government said Puigdemont had managed to vote anyway, tweeting pictures of him casting his ballot in Cornella del Terri, some 10 kilometres (six miles) away.
The drama unfolded after a night of tension in which thousands of people, both nervous and excited, had gathered outside polling stations before dawn.
In Barcelona, rows of police vans were in the streets, their blue lights flashing as officers in riot gear, some carrying heavy bolt cutters, walked through the street as crowds thronged the streets outside a polling station.
"Votarem, votarem!" -- Catalan for "We will vote!" -- they chanted, many with their hands...
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
The people of Catalonia want to be independent. Away from Spain and the E.U. This is kind of like Brexit.
Catalonia should be free if they want the Independence.
Oh I know the Globalists hate that. They want to rule people like Kings and Queens and not let people be free.
This should be interesting to watch.
I didn't know precisely where Catalonia is.
"Catalonia comprises most of the territory of the former Principality of Catalonia (with the remainder Roussillon now part of France's Pyrénées-Orientales). It is bordered by France and Andorra to the north, the Mediterranean Sea to the east, and the Spanish autonomous communities of Aragon to the west and Valencia to the south. The official languages are Catalan, Spanish, and the Aranese dialect of Occitan.[8]"
Not sure what is so seditious about Catalonia. Spain should focus instead on islamics creating sedition against the rights of spanish women. But I guess socialists do not see women’s rights very highly or of any capital importance other than handing some welfare biscuits and free abortions...
All political movements at this juncture are really a big distraction from more pressing needs of a sort of declaration against the islamic sedition against a free people, but the reaction of the globalists is even more distracting than the activities of nationalists. What a joke.
The vote is a nonbinding referendum and using state force to stop it is not a smart move.
The vote could’ve been a safety valve.
Now it’ll become tinder.
Agreed. I’m starting to come down on the side of Catalan independence.
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