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Spain’s Guardia Civil raids Catalan government HQ amid referendum row Catalan government officials arrested amid referendum row
(about 1 hour later)
Spain’s Guardia Civil has searched several Barcelona headquarters of Catalonia’s regional government, a Catalan government spokesman has said. Spanish police officers have raided three Catalan regional government departments and arrested 12 senior officials as Madrid steps up its battle to stop an independence referendum being held in less than two weeks’ time.
The operation comes amid mounting tensions as Catalan leaders press ahead with preparations for an independence referendum on 1 October despite Madrid’s ban and a court ruling deeming it illegal. On Wednesday morning, a spokesman for the regional government said Guardia Civil officers were searching the Barcelona offices of the presidency and the ministries of economic affairs and foreign relations.
Officers from the Guardia Civil were searching the Catalan government’s offices of economic affairs, foreign relations and the presidency, the spokesman said. He also confirmed that Josep Maria Jové, the secretary general of economic affairs and an aide to the Catalan vice-president, was among those detained – apparently in connection with the launch of web pages related to the referendum. Catalan ministers are due to hold an emergency meeting.
The operation comes a day after documents related to the independence referendum were seized from the offices of Unipost, a private delivery firm, in the Catalan city of Terrasa. Police and judicial authorities gave no details on the operation, saying a judge had placed a secrecy order on it.
Pro-separatist parties captured 47.6% of the vote in a September 2015 regional election in Catalonia billed as a proxy vote on independence, giving them a narrow majority of 72 seats in the 135-seat Catalan parliament. The raids come a day after the Guardia Civil confiscated referendum documents from the offices of a private delivery firm in the Catalan city of Terrassa. More than 1.5m referendum leaflets and posters have also been seized.
But polls show Catalonia’s roughly 7.5 million residents are divided on independence. Several hundred protesters blocked Barcelona’s Gran Via, near Jové’s office, on Wednesday morning, chanting: “Independence!” and “We will vote!”
A survey commissioned by the regional government in July showed 49.4% of Catalans were against independence while 41.1% were in favour. More than 70% of Catalans want a legal referendum on independence to settle the issue. Anna Sola, an unemployed 45-year-old, said she rushed to Jové’s office after hearing of his arrest on the news and through text messages from friends.
“They are attacking our institutions – those that we voted [for] - for simply doing what the people want, and without any respect,” she told the AFP news agency.
“It is a shame what is happening in Catalonia, there are no words for it.”
One pro-independence Catalan MP tweeted: “This is a coup d’état. Illegal detentions and searches. They want to steal our democracy. They won’t be able to. We vote Oct 1.”
The conservative government of the Spanish prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, has refused to rule anything out when it comes to preventing the vote from taking place on 1 October. Both the government and the Spanish constitutional court have said the unilateral referendum is illegal and should not go ahead.
However, the pro-sovereignty Catalan regional government, led by Carles Puigdemont, insists the vote is democratic and will allow all Catalans to have say in their future.
Speaking on Wednesday morning, Rajoy defended the government’s actions, saying: “What we’re seeing in Catalonia is an attempt to eliminate the constitution and the autonomous statute of Catalonia … Logically, the state has to react. There is no democratic state in the world that would accept what these people are trying to do. They’ve been warned and they know the referendum can’t take place.”
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The raids mark a major escalation in Madrid’s efforts to stop the vote from proceeding – as do remarks from the Spanish foreign minister, who has accused some separatists of using a “Nazi” approach to intimidate Catalan mayors opposed to secession.
“Referendums are a weapon of choice of dictators,” Alfonso Dastis in an interview with Bloomberg in New York on Tuesday.
“These people actually are taking some Nazi attitudes because they are putting up posters with the faces of mayors who are resisting their call to participate in this charade,” Dastis said.
“A referendum isn’t the same as a democracy. General Franco organised two referendums.”
Although more than 70% of Catalonia’s 7.5 million people are in favour of a referendum, surveys suggest they are almost evenly split on the issue of independence.
A survey two months ago showed 49.4% of Catalans are against independence while 41.1% are in favour.
More than 80% of participants opted for independence in a symbolic poll three years ago – although only 2.3 million of Catalonia’s 5.4 million eligible voters took part.