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Hundreds injured in crackdown on 'illegal' Catalonia independence vote

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Scuffles erupted outside between police and people waiting to vote.
BARCELONA — Violence and chaos erupted Sunday in northeastern Spain when riot police smashed their way into polling stations in a crackdown on a banned, nonbinding referendum on independence in the autonomous Catalonia region.
The Catalonia government said more than 300 people were injured, some seriously, after Spanish riot police fired rubber bullets at some would-be voters and clashed with protesters across the region, the Associated Press reported.
Soraya Saenz de Santamaria, Spain’s deputy prime minister, said Spanish police intervened with “firmness and proportionality,” saying the riot squads were intent on seizing referendum material but did not target voters.
The violence erupted shortly after polls opened and before Catalonia regional president Carles Puigdemont cast his vote. Polling station workers reacted peacefully and broke out into songs and chants challenging the riot squad’s presence.
FC Barcelona, among the world’s most prestigious soccer teams, played their schedule game against Las Palmas in an empty-100,000 seat stadium. The team issued a statement condemning efforts to keep voters from “exercising their democratic right to free expression.”
Polling stations across the region drew long lines before dawn Sunday. Voters said they were determined to be heard despite Spanish security forces in riot gear attempting to shut polls and confiscate ballots at some of the more than 2,000 voting centers.
“I will vote in favor of independence – I’ve been in favor of it since I was a student,” said Antoni Ruiz Cornellà, 46, an economist in Barcelona. “People here are not looking for violence, but I’m not sure that’s the case with the Spanish side.”
For weeks, Spain has warned that the vote is unconstitutional, and authorities detained some Catalan officials. The Spanish government ordered police to shut down voting centers and seized millions of ballots.
“We’re being forced to do what we didn’t want to…because Catalonia did not,” Enric Millo, Madrid’s representative in Catalonia, said on Spanish TV, calling the vote “illegal…and a joke.”
Catalans pushed back. Over the weekend, Catalans used tractors and other vehicles to block Spanish security from accessing the polling places, also removing doors so they couldn’t be nailed shut or padlocked.
The polling centers opted for make-shift ballots printed by private companies, and using a census roll as a voter list. Voting rules were changed so that the more than 5 million eligible voters could cast their ballots at any polling station.
A spokesman for Carles Puigdemont, head of Catalonia’s regional government blasted Spain for its crackdown.
“It’s reminiscent of the Franco era,” said his spokesman, Jordi Turull, referring to Spain’s longtime military dictator Francisco Franco, who ruled the nation for more than three decades before his death in 1975.
The most recent polls show a split over independence, in part because it’s unclear what relationship Catalonia would have with the European Union or Spain itself.
Maria Rosa Vergès, 57, restaurant owner in Sant Pol de Mar, a coastal town north of Barcelona, said she was voting on behalf of her grandparents, who struggled under the Franco regime. She said Spain had no right to deny Catalans their vote.
“I’m voting yes – I’ve been in favor of independence for a long time,” said Maria Rosa Vergès, 57, restaurant owner in Sant Pol de Mar, coastal town north of Barcelona. “Maybe we won’t achieve independence this time, but it’s coming.”
Elisabet Maragall, 46, travel agency owner, said more people than ever are feeling disconnected from Spain.
” I have nothing against Spain, it’s a marvelous country,” she said. “But we hear people calling us anti-democratic, terrorists, Nazis. There’s nothing worse than ignorance. We’ve had enough. We’re thinking about the future of Catalonia, not Spain.”
At one polling station, two lines formed of at least 1,000 people, both going halfway around the block in opposite directions. The police appeared at 11 a.m., parking vans at the intersections on both ends of the street, while voters faced off with them while others blocked the entrance chanting, “We are a peaceful people.”
The crowd chanted, “Stay away, stay away,” “Democracy, democracy,” and “We will vote,” while singing the Catalan national anthem, “Els Segadors,” (The Reapers).
The police left around noon, provoking a roar of approval and applause.
When the doors opened, old people voted first. Each time they exited, the crowd erupted in applause. Until the police arrived, the atmosphere was celebratory.
“We clap for the old people because it’s harder for them and they still came out, but also because they lived through Franco’s oppression and it means a lot symbolically,” said Joan Comas Fernandez, 49, who works in real estate in Barcelona.
Comas came with his family at 5 a.m. to protect the polling station from the police, who said they would arrive at 6 a.m. The family brought coffee, breakfast and a dozen carnations to give to the police.
“The carnations are our weapons,” Fernandez said.
Bhatti reported from Paris

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