Apparently, there's been violent conflict between supporters of and an independent Catalonia and the Spanish state police, with the state police allegedly brutally disrupting the referendum vote by means of overwhelming force. Story links below.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/melee-catalonia-spanish-police-violently-attack-voters-article-1.3533461?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NydnRss+%28Top+Stories+-+NY+Daily+News%29

http://www.latimes.com/world/europe/la-fg-spain-catalonia-independence-20171001-story.html


I don't actually know anything about politics in Spain and Catalonia's reason for wanting become independent or whether or not this is being dramatized by our media, so hopefully one of our Spanish or Catalonian users can shed a little more like on the details.

The situation is a long due one. There's always been the spirit of independence in our history, and in recent years, the local governors used that spirit to initiate a process to obtain the so-desired independence. All because the local governors started to become suspects in cases of corruption and needed something to make the people forget about those petty details, and in this aspect they've succeeded spectacularly.

Today was the day when a voting would be held, asking the people of Catalonia if they wanted to be an independent country or stay with Spain. It wasn't seen very good from Spain, and thus the process was always cut short by the state governors. In the last weeks, many videos and images of the excessive "reinforcements" to "make Catalonia abide the law" roamed through the net, and today was the day when the timer ran out.

The state police fulfilled orders and attempted to stop the voting. However, being no pacifists, they opened up a path by striking whatever stood in their way. Of course, this in turn triggered the switch on the civilians, who answered back with force and escalated the conflict. The result is that many were injured in both sides, and the several images and videos roaming the world speak for themselves as to what image we have given.

Why so much brutality, will you ask? Well, the Spanish government doesn't want Catalonia to drift away, because Spain would sink in hell without us. Since many who would have voted against the independence wouldn't really vote for not wanting to be part of this movement, the independence was sure to win. Therefore, there should not be a voting, and violence was the only way they thought of stopping this.

Could have it gone another way? Of course. Catalonia can't go away on its own, it needs to be certified by the Spanish government. Basically, whatever the result of the voting was, if Spain said no then it's no. But yeah, our president is a useless piece of barely evolved mud, and instead of exercising the power inherent to his position he relied things to his minions, who don't have the same power and thus could only relay orders to the police, which in turn had no power but to forcefully make their way to "abide the law".

The thing is that our president just doesn't want Catalonia to show this kind of freedom to do things. Why? Because most likely other regions would follow suit, and then things would really go out of hand for the government, or at least they think so because they, and in turn all of us, live in 1940. That's why they said this was illegal, they simply don't want anyone even attempting to think of leaving or Spain will become dust and ashes. And to ensure they won't think about holding this again, we'll show them what a real punishment is.

tl,dr Catalonia was free of doing the voting, Spain was in no right to allow this kind of violence. The police could have acted differently, and for sure our politicians could be more involved with their business instead of filling their pockets with our money. Most of the population is furious with Spain's behavior, and so the Spanish government's plan backfired to produce consequences that will arise in the next weeks.

I question whether or not it's really my place to pick a side as someone who's otherwise uninvolved or unaffected, but if it really is the people of a region democratically seeking autonomy from an otherwise overbearing government, even though I don't know anything about the policies of either party, I still think I'd side with democracy. More about the principle than the policy.

EX Palen :
tornadocam :

Y'know, I've been meaning to study up on the Spanish Civil War since it's not something I've really looked into, but I hate to think that I'll get to see episode two in real time....

m0ssb3rg935 :  

Sure you aren't worried about it happening on our soil first? The democrats really don't like Trump right now, and they already tried to succeed with the rest of the south once. . . they proudly waved that blue crossed flag.


EX Palen :  

Always nice to have someone from the other side standing in for us. It sounds pretty. . . intense. In America, we've had to deal with a lot of unnecessary violence and even Police abusing citizens, but not to that extent.

tornadocam : Europe will not tolerate what has happened. Haven't yet checked today's news, but for sure there's been some calls and action will be taken. Besides, there are movements that want to report the government's attitude for allowing this because it's a total violation of human rights. The consequences have just started.

m0ssb3rg935 : I personally don't see that second episode coming, we have nothing to win. The only way Catalonia can become independent is by Spain accepting it, and we won't send our military to force an agreement because it would be no use.

If there's a direct confrontation between two coalitions with opposed ideals, which is what ultimately started the civil war, then surely war will break out. However, that's very unlikely. There hasn't been a full agreement to strengthen the law against our saddest flaw that is the "male chauvinist violence", so don't hold high hopes that many political forces will join together in this fight.

Sword legion : Yeah, we now get a glimpse of a few episodes 'Murica has lived over the years, but what happened yesterday is just insane. If the police had no choice but to interfere then things would have been different, but they interfered because the politicians ordered them to take action while they remained comfortably seated on their armchairs taking no responsibility for anything regarding this matter.