Scuffles erupted outside between police and people waiting to vote.
BARCELONA — Spanish riot police smashed into polling stations Sunday and wounded more than 800 people while trying to halt a banned referendum on independence in the autonomous Catalonia region.
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, in a televised address after the polls closed, declared there was no independence vote in Catalonia and called the referendum an “attack on the rule of law.”
Rajoy also thanked the police for acting with “firmness and serenity.” The Spanish government in Madrid had opposed the referendum, and Spain’s highest court earlier ruled to suspend the vote, but local authorities went ahead anyway.
Catalonia’s health services said 844 people were injured, with two in serious condition, after police fired rubber bullets, used batons and roughed up voters. Spain’s Interior Ministry said 33 police officers were injured.
The violence erupted shortly after polls opened. Polling station workers reacted peacefully and broke out into songs and chants challenging the riot squad’s presence.
Barcelona’s soccer team, among the world’s most prestigious teams, played their scheduled game against Las Palmas in an empty-100,000 seat stadium to protest the Spanish government’s attempt to halt Catalonia’s independence.
The team issued a statement condemning efforts to keep voters from «exercising their democratic right to free expression.» Barcelona won 3-0.
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 ahead of Sunday’s vote.
Catalans pushed back. Over the weekend, people used tractors and other vehicles to block Spanish security from accessing the polling places, also removing doors so they couldn’t be nailed closed or padlocked.
Polling stations across the region drew long lines before dawn, as 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.»
Enric Millo, Madrid’s representative in Catalonia, called the vote «illegal … and a joke.»
Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau called on Rajoy, the prime minister, to resign after police were seen beating and kicking people trying to vote.
“Rajoy has been a coward, hiding behind the prosecutors and courts. Today he crossed all the red lines with the police actions against normal people, old people, families who were defending their fundamental rights,” she told TV3.
Colau also said that after Sunday’s violence, Catalonia has “earned the right to demand” a proper vote on independence from Spain. “The European Union must take a stand on what has happened in Catalonia,” she said.
Foreign Minister Alfonso Dastis blamed the violence on Catalan President Carles Puigdemont and his regional government.
“If people insist in disregarding the law and doing something that has been consistently declared illegal and unconstitutional, law enforcement officers need to uphold the law,” Dastis said in an interview with the Associated Press
The most recent polls showed a split over independence, in part because it’s unclear what relationship Catalonia would have with the EU or Spain itself.
Catalonia, in northeastern Spain, is one of the country’s 17 semi-autonomous regions. Barcelona, the Catalan capital and home to 7.5 million people, contributes disproportionately to Spain’s national coffers. It accounts for about one-fifth of the Spain’s economy and 30% of foreign trade.
A spokesman for Puigdemont, head of Catalonia’s regional government, blasted Spain for its crackdown.
«It’s reminiscent of the Franco era,” spokesman Jordi Turull said, referring to Spain’s longtime military dictator Francisco Franco, who ruled the nation for more than three decades before his death in 1975.
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,» she said. «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 some voters faced off with them and 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, older 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.
