Catalonia – What Really Happened And What Next?

By TruePublica: The Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy has, in a very short period of time become an international  disgrace to the image of a free society and democracy. Rajoy and the Establishment have illustrated exactly what they are prepared to do when threatened politically – they become authoritarian whenever that threat emerges. 

 

Why does Rajoy and the Establishment that supports him feel he has a right to beat up, threaten, arrest and imprison people who want a separatist vote? Rajoy has fully demonstrated to the world that the Spanish government is itself is not fit to govern when it decides that there is no standard of international law required to govern in the first place.

When people of a country or region decide themselves to permanently withdraw its consent to be governed, organises itself and convinces all that are directly affected to find the audacity and fortitude to determine their future, then the ruling government usually does one of two things – it stands aside and enters the debate or prepares itself to spill the blood of their own people. In Spain, the established forces and voices of the European Union decided to support thuggery and threats.

 

From Craig Murray, ex British Ambassador on the day of the Catalonian vote – “The ironic point, of course, is that had Spain agreed to a referendum process, they had a fair chance of winning it. It worked for continuing Westminster control of Scotland, although the Spanish government do not have the mainstream media monopoly in Catalonia which the unionists enjoyed in Scotland. It will be astonishing if the contempt for the views of the Catalonian people shown by Spain over the last month, has not instead propelled a large number of Catalans into the Independence camp, the more so given Rajoy’s blundering insistence on changing things today into a physical confrontation.”

The government shut down airspace to prevent others from flying into Barcelona to join the protests, ordered Google to shut down the App “On Votar 1-Oct” allowing people to communicate with each other, which Google, another pro-Estblishment transnational happily complied with instantly. Masked Government forces illegally broke into private buildings to steal ballot boxes and ballot papers.

Wikileaks reported that Spain’s military police (@GuardiaCivil) occupied Barcelona telecoms building and an order went out blocking 29 telecommunications applications used by the Catalan government that might be used to count or plan the vote.

 

Rajoy had even sent thousands of troops in to stop the referendum from happening. They are living, at the moment, in cruise ships off the Catalan coast waiting for orders to engage.

 

So far, (05.32 hrs 02/10/17) 761 people have been reportedly injured as police used force to try to block voting in the controversial independence referendum. The police managed to shut only 92 of the 2155 polling stations.

The European Union, the governments of the West, including Britain, overwhelmingly backed the paramilitary forces of Spain to prevent the democratic right of peaceful citizens from voting. What the Western world has just witnessed is the sole reason why the European Union is falling apart, the sole reason why ultra left and right-wing forces are coming to the foreground – indeed, are increasingly being elected to the very same corridors of power.

More from Craig Murray – “The right in international law of a people to self-determination cannot be constrained by the domestic legislation of the larger state from which that people is seeking to secede. NATO itself went to war ostensibly to enforce the right to self-determination of the Kosovans, which Kosovan secession was claimed as illegal by Serbia in precisely the same terms the Spanish claim. The hypocrisy of NATO governments is breathtaking (as always).”

 

The truth is this. The current government of Spain are the direct political heirs of Franco and that many of their ministers have personal and family connections to his rule. Rajoy, Spain’s current Prime Minister, started his political career in 1981 by joining the People’s Alliance, a party founded in 1979 and led by 7 of Franco’s ministers to carry on the Francoist legacy. The People’s Alliance became the major component in the now governing People’s Party. It is a directly Francoist party.

 

The EU has already proven its authoritarian tendencies as well. It has done so with Poland and Hungary with regard to forcing refugees on sovereign states. It has demonstrated this with Britain’s democratic vote to leave the EU. It defied millions of its own citizens to forge unpopular trade deals such as TTIP and CETA that saw the continual erosion of workers rights, the environment, food and safety standards. The constant loss of human rights, civil liberties, increased surveillance and endemic prying into peoples privacy, has caused a huge decline in trust of the very pillars of society such as government, corporate power and justice.

 

 

The European Commission has warned both Poland and Hungary in strong terms of the consequences of their right wing lurches away from democracy by defying the EU on the rights of people. There, the EU fights the good fight for ethical principles – but only in order to maintain its own power and yet does the opposite in Spain – again to maintain power.

The defenceless population of Catalonia, faced with an armed military police and riot forces have subsequently now voted from what was predicted to be somewhere close to 50/50 and swung dramatically to 90/10 for independence. How predictable!

One voter, Júlia Graell, told the BBC 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.”

The BBC reports that – “In some areas, farmers positioned tractors on roads and in front of polling station doors, and school gates were taken away to make it harder for the authorities to seal buildings off. Firefighters acted as human shields between police and demonstrators.”

Other reports state that thousands of local people occupied schools and other buildings designated as polling stations in order to keep them open.

The hashtag #CatalanReferendum clearly demonstrates some of the worst police violence ever witnessed on European soil in recent years.

What Next?

No matter what happened yesterday, or the fact that the vote was hugely in favour, Catalonia is a long way away from independence. The Spanish government under Rajoy will continue to refuse to recognise the result of the referendum or any independence vote in its regional parliament.

Spain will now gear themselves up and prepare for major protests and months of chaotic confrontation. The offer of greater constitutional reforms that grant Catalonia more money and greater financial autonomy if Catalonian leaders cancelled their vote is now off the table.

The result is that the Catalonians, once unsure just a few months back if they even wanted independence, now hate Rajoy and his Francoist regime with a passion that did not previously exist. The Catalonians will withdraw for a short time. The time for compromise has gone, the government blew it – more extreme events will subsequently take place in order to force the government to agree to a legally binding independence vote, which the government now knows it will lose. It’s just a matter of time now. But between now and then – violence will escalate if the powers that be do not acquiesce to citizen will. It always does.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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