DEMONSTRATIONS have been witnessed across Catalonia in a week that saw Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy intensify his crackdown on Catalan Government politicians and officials.
They are being targeted for their alleged role in organising the October 1 independence referendum which his government has decreed is illegal.
Protesters chanted “No pasaran [We are not afraid]” and sang anti-Franco anthems in scenes reminiscent of Spain’s dark past. Madrid’s central government has taken control paying Catalonia’s creditors, to halt any expenditure relating to the poll’s organisation; 712 civic heads have been charged with “assisting the referendum”; and Madrid has threatened to arrest Catalan President Carles Puigdemont.
READ MORE: EU leaders opt to remain silent as tensions mount over Spain's approach to Catalonia
Pictures also emerged on social media showing army vehicles transporting tanks into Catalonia, the purpose of which was not explained. Police have seized millions of documents, including ballot papers, Spanish judges have ordered mobile phone networks to block access to the official referendum website ref1oct.eu and the Spanish Post Office has been ordered to open “suspicious” mail to check for referendum-related material.
They have even tried to remove Catalonia’s online identity by raiding offices of the puntCat foundation – which oversees registry of websites with the “.cat” domain – and arrested one of its senior executives.
Catalan Foreign Minister Raul Romeva said what was in dispute was not independence, but human rights.
During a radio interview he said: “What we are confronted with is not a question on the independence of Catalonia, it’s a question of fundamental rights. Holding the referendum has not been a crime since 2005 and according to the constitution it’s not banned, so it’s perfectly possible.
“What we are confronted with is not a legal problem, it’s a political problem.”
Romeva said he had been buoyed by the support Catalonia had received from Scots, with demonstrations and gatherings in Glasgow and Edinburgh.
He added: “It’s not about Catalan independence, it’s about democracy. There’s a lot of people out in the streets [of Catalonia] who are not in favour of independence, but they are defending fundamental rights for all citizens.”
Puigdemont has accused Madrid of a profoundly undemocratic overreaction, and said efforts to stop the indyref exceed the security measures put in place at the height of Basque separatist group Eta’s terror campaign.
He said: “There’s a serious and worrying return to the fall of democracy in Spain and it’s not just us who are realising that.”
The arrival of the accommodation ferries in Barcelona, he said, was proof of the Spanish Government’s authoritarian attitude: “In the worst years of the Eta era, you didn’t get such massive deployments. And anyway, we haven’t killed anyone here.
“When Eta was killing so many people, a lot of people said, ‘If the violence ends, then we can start talking’. But there’s no violence here.
“The government is misleading people. We’ve spent six years organising things very calmly and fighting political battles. They may have been pretty noisy battles, but they were political and democratic battles, and they’re behaving as if we were in a violent conflict.”
Plaid Cymru MP Hywel Williams, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Catalonia, told The National: “We are leaving the EU, but to have a member state that takes such a potentially oppressive view of another language and culture within its borders bodes ill.
“The Spanish Government have taken steps about the teaching of Castilian and the non-teaching of Catalan – it doesn’t look good. The significant thing for us is we are still members of the EU and Spain is a democracy under EU law subject to the same strictures on human rights as we are.”
Williams added that he had no idea how it would end: “I wonder if Rajoy has any idea either because he seems to be doing everything he can to inflame the situation further.
“But I have no doubt at all that our Catalan friends will continue demonstrating and making sure that their voice is heard.”
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