Spain Brutal Attempt To Suppress Catalonia Independence Bid Backfires

Riot police violently prevent people voting in Catalonia referendum
(Image source: Semarangpos.com)

Most people in Europe have forgotten that from 1939 to 1975 Spain was ruled by an authoritarian regime every bits brutal as Mussolini's Fascisti in Italy or Hitler's Nazis in Germany. This is why there has been such a wave of shocked disbelief  at the Madrid government's  strongarm tactics against the Catalan separatist movement's independence referendum.  Ironically the decision to send in the thugs has only served to unify the voters of Catalona in suport of secession from Spain.

A  Catalan European Democratic party MEP Ramon Tremosa told reporters that those who are really divided over the issue are Spaniards, not Catalonians.

Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont has delayed until Tuesday a session in the regional parliament at which it is expected the assembly will vote for a unilateral declaration of independence from Spain, French news agency AFP reported, citing a regional government spokesman. 

“Puigdemont has requested to appear before parliament on Tuesday to discuss the current political situation,” the spokesman said earlier today.

Spain’s Constitutional Court had previously  ordered the suspension of the session initially scheduled for Monday. It may be Puigdemont fears the government will use force in an effort to prevent the vote taking place.

Meanwhile, in the face of mounting criticism from human rights groups, Madrid is sticking to its hard line on taking whatever action is deemed necessary against what it considers to be illegal separatism. 

Senor Tremosa said  that the brutal military repression, seen by all the world via television and internet news services last Sunday, has unified Catalans. Before the referendum, all the polls, published in Madrid also, showed that 82 percent of Catalans wanted the referendum. And now I can say that we are much more united. On the contrary, the government of Mariano Rajoy lost two weeks ago a vote in the Spanish Parliament under repression in Catalonia. So who is divided more and more? Spanish society, not the Catalan one.

RELATED POSTS:

Spain Set To Slpit As Catalonia says 'We Quit'
EU Vows To Use Powers To Block All Elected ‘Far Right’ Politicians From Power,
When Will Egypt Get True Democracy
Adolf Hitler, His Part In Our Downfall (.pdf dowload)