Bloomberg reports Spain Hires Cruise Liner to House Police in Rebel Catalonia.
Catalonia president Carles Puigdemont responded that the Spanish government actions are ‘beyond the limits of a respectable democracy’ but vote will go ahead. Will it?
Spain has discreetly hired ferries to be moored in the Port of Barcelona as temporary housing for possibly thousands of police specially deployed to keep order in rebel Catalonia and help suppress an illegal independence referendum.
The aim is to amass more than 16,000 riot police and other security officers by the Oct. 1 referendum, El Correo newspaper reported on its website. That would exceed the number of Catalan police, the Mossos d’Esquadra, who serve both the Catalan and central governments.
Three Boats for Additional Police Arrive in Catalonia
Catalan News reports Three Boats for Additional Police Arrive in Catalonia
Three cruise-size boats have docked in Barcelona and Tarragona, commissioned by the Spanish government, there to accommodate more police reinforcements.
The three ships arrived this morning. The first, located at the Lepant Dock in Barcelona, is called Rhapsody with capacity of more than 2,000 people. The second, called GNV Azzurro, is currently in the Tarragona Andalusia Dock, has space for 800 people. The third, which arrived last and is now stationed at the Barcelona Prince of Spain Dock, is Italian like the two other vessels and is named Moby Dada. The latter has capacity for 1,000 passengers.
Vote Undermined?
The economy minister of the Catalan regional government stated the Crackdown has Undermined the Catalan Independence Bid.
“It is obvious that we won’t be able to vote as we would have liked,” Oriol Junqueras, deputy head and economy minister of the regional government, told local television TV3. “They have altered the rules.”
It was the first time the promoters of the referendum had acknowledged their plans were in doubt, although Junqueras said he was convinced voters would still turn out in numbers.
Violation of Basic Rights
Is there a difference between conducting a vote as they would have liked vs conducting a vote at all?
As of this morning, the Catalan president said the vote would take place. “The aggressive tactics of Mariano Rajoy’s government have caused this crisis. All Catalan citizens want is to peacefully exercise our democratic right,”
said Carles Puigdemont, president of Catalonia.
In a Guardian Op-Ed, Puigdemont makes the case Spain’s Attempt to Block Catalonia’s Referendum is a Violation of Our Basic Rights.
Democracy has been under a lot of pressure in Catalonia for the past few weeks. European values, civil rights, freedom of speech, freedom of information and freedom of assembly are being violated by Spain’s central government, which has sent the police to search newspapers, printing companies and private mail services; ban political meetings; seize referendum material; and threaten to imprison democratically elected politicians.
On Wednesday, this moved up a gear, when threats became reality and Spanish paramilitary police took Catalonia to a de facto state of emergency. Fourteen high-ranking government officials were arrested as part of the anti-referendum operation, as police raided government buildings, offices and private homes. What is happening here in Catalonia would not happen anywhere else in the European Union.
We have arrived at this unacceptable situation after asking Madrid for political dialogue dozens of times, and each time being rejected by the Spanish executive, which has consistently refused to discuss Catalonia’s future. But a healthy democracy needs dialogue in order to evolve. Instead of engaging in discourse, the Spanish government has opted for police and judges, taking us beyond the limits of a respectable democracy.
With the arrests of high-ranking officials and threats to detain democratically elected politicians, I believe the Spanish government has violated the European charter of fundamental rights. The EU itself is built on these values and is committed to guaranteeing the rights proclaimed in the charter and in the EU treaties. As an EU member state, Spain should respect that. If not, it is the European commission’s duty to intervene. The rule of law is accepted across Europe as the guarantee of our rights, but the Spanish president, Mariano Rajoy, is twisting our law to suit his own political ends in blocking the referendum. Spain’s constitution was introduced to cement democracy after Franco’s dictatorship, but this government is exploiting its wording as a means to deny us our right to vote.
We have only arrived at this crisis due to aggressive tactics employed by Rajoy over the past seven years. In 2010, the Spanish constitutional court annulled a large part of the Catalan statute of autonomy negotiated between Catalonia and the previous prime minister, José Luis Zapatero.
The ruling by the court – whose current president is a former activist for Rajoy’s conservative Popular party – showed contempt for the legitimacy of the statute of autonomy, which had been approved by both the Catalan and Spanish parliaments, and also by the Catalan citizens through a referendum. More than a million people marched against this annulment in Barcelona in July 2010. Since then, millions more Catalan citizens have taken peacefully to the streets in defence of self-rule and the right to decide on their political future.
No longer will we compromise on our desire for a referendum. We won’t give up on it. Catalans will exercise their right to decide in the 1 October referendum – whatever the actions of central government. We call on the international community to stand with Catalonia in its defence of democracy and true European values. In the meantime, our citizens must be ready to defend democracy and self-rule in the coming days with the only weapons we have: ballot boxes and a peaceful attitude.
Watershed Moment
Via Email, Eurointelligence calls Spain’s sending in the troops a watershed moment.
For over a year now we have been insisting that our readers should keep the Catalan separatist challenge to Spain on their radar as one likely source of political instability in Europe. We have also warned that things must come to a head by September, as at least one of the key players would have to stage a big climb-down if a major clash was to be avoided. Yesterday turned out to be just that watershed moment in the Catalan crisis.
The Guardia Civil confiscated nearly ten million ballot papers, and additional supporting material such as voter lists and tally forms, for the illegal referendum scheduled for October 1st. This was a day after intercepting voter cards and notices for voters to man the polling stations. Without voter rolls or ballots, the referendum – organised in defiance of a Spanish constitutional court injunction – is now almost certain not to take place. But it hardly matters any more, because the situation has progressed to the next stage. The reason is that the police operation also involved the arrest yesterday morning of up to sixteen Catalan government officials, in connection with the investigation into the organisation of the referendum. The risk now is that the conflict will move to the streets. The development to watch out for over the next ten days or so – and especially after the week-end – is whether protests will escalate and how the Spanish security forces will control them. A glimpse of the scale of protests that took place yesterday, not only in Catalonia but across Spain, can be had at hashtag #CatalunyaNoEstasSola.
Yesterday’s arrests were not initiated by the state prosecutors who can be presumed to be under political control of the justice ministry. The police operation was ordered ex-officio by a judge investigating the organisation of the Catalan referendum since February, when former judge – and then ERC senator – Santi Vidal boasted that the Catalan tax office had stolen the taxpayer data for its voter database, as we reported at the time.
There is some controversy about whether the judge followed the appropriate procedures in this case, and critics are questioning his political motives.
The judge’s choice of people to arrest is also revealing: they stop at the deputy secretary of economy and finance of the Catalan government, because as a political appointee he does not enjoy immunity from prosecution. Targeting his boss, deputy Catalan PM and ERC leader Oriol Junqueras, would have forced the case to be moved to the Catalan high court.
Let the Vote Take Place
I repeat what I stated yesterday …
Edward Snowden makes a similar set of statement.
Will the Catalan Independence Vote Take Place on October 1?
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
Fortunately, there’s no historical precedent for civil war in Spain.
Ask not for whom the bell tolls, G.
Hemingway was such a pu**y. We used to make him go hunt for half-smoked cigarette butts in the alleys. He’d always come back acting like he couldn’t find any, reeking of cheap tobacco.
This just in… Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead.
In future, technology will neuter Spain. No ballot papers, no voting booths. All votes secure with ID proven via Smartphone.
This will slow down adoption of such voting systems because as soon as legitimised by a state any region can use it and very hard to stop.
One way or another there has to be a compromise. Both sides boxed in now.
Well I am just reading through the Catalan organisation… they say the confiscation of the 55000 summons letters for booth attendance is not going to be an obstacle. The referendum website, when shut down in Spain, was transferred to servers in the UK and Luxembourg. Individual electoral notifications are not going to be by mail, instead citizens access the website, type in name and ID, and are registered and given the address of where their voting station will be. They say they have contingency plans for if the voting stations are closed.
“beyond the limits of a respectable democracy”
———————
Everything in Europe is “beyond the limits of a respectable democracy”. Why on earth would abolishing a vote in Catalunya be any different?
On a related issue, it seems like Teresa May is prepared to pay £20 billion plus to get away from the European pantomime; as a UK voter who supported her government at the last election, I object. We should give them NOTHING. We should cancel all further ‘negotiations’, tell Barnier to go and sling his hook. And if they have to recast their budget – TOUGH! If there are trade deals to be struck then lets get on with it … with India, China, Peru, whoever. So far as Europe is concerned, sod ’em!
Hear, hear! And, a hard Brexit and Bo Jo for PM.
Congratulations. You’ve got rid of some real douche bags, like e.g. this one: Meet the EUSSR’s Digital Commissar.
http://www.acting-man.com/?p=34105
Democracy is about abiding by the rules of democracy, not the rules imposed by a bunch of xenophobic fasc1sts. Democracy is the rule of the law, and whoever breaks those rules is a criminal. That’s the way it is. Just read the main Spanish newspapers, right and left. They all rightly refer to the referendum as a ‘putsch’ in the making. Catalan nationalists have broken the rules too many times for too many years to get to this point. If you replace Jews with Spaniards, Hitler’s access to power was based on similar ideas. I know it is a strong assertion, but I’ve lived there -and under Franco’s regime- and know what I’m talking about. My sympathy for the disguised liberal Mariano Rajoy is absolutely nil, but if he did nothing about this the situation could become really serious. It probably will, anyway.
Democracy is the rule of the law, and whoever breaks those rules is a criminal
———————-
The only reason the EU continues to exist is because the technocratic elites persistently break their own rules. They ARE the criminals!
Another civil war in the making? When it come to violence Governments lead the way.
Roger Roger! Roger.
huh?n 😉
the n was a typo
While what Snowden wrote about human rights is morally true, in practice those rights are distributed according the strength to defend them.
The infants running the rebellion in Catalonia don’t really have a plan to govern if/when they win an election. Some want lower taxes while college children want socialism, if our blog host’s earlier posts are accurate — hardly compatible ideas. They are only united in their dislike of Madrid (which won’t last once their rebellion succeeds), and their spectacularly naive beliefs (unfounded) about Brussels.
But then Madrid takes a page from the Soviet Union and Saddam’s Iraq — sending in troops to prevent a democratic vote… actually, lets be honest enough to admit that Obama did the same in Ukraine (even if he did so at Soros’ behest).
Its difficult to know who, if anyone, to support in this fiasco.
Support the act of secession.
Or we could try to mind our own business, which in this case means staying out of it.
Not sure if the USA should be the global policeman, but we definitely should not be the global babysitter
I will say that I felt the next European civil war would be muslims vs Europeans I highly doubt the people of Catalonia have the stomach for a civil war. Seems that is what Spain/EU are banking on.
They are just migrants that are bringing real estate with them. What’s so wrong about that?
The next step will be the trabuc. The blunderbus used by Catalan robin hood outlaws of past times.
Ranjoy is mad. Madrid is going to lose, and lose big. The last civil war is not that long ago and its sour memories are still with many Spaniards.
Half of Spain’s security apparatus hastily, and with little preparation nor thought for security, slammed together like sardines in a few hard to emergency evacuate containers. With direct, at most lightly impeded, accessibility from the entire Mediterranean….. In the same town that just had a Jihadi attack…. These morons are so reckless and dumb, it will be genuinely hard to bring oneself to even care; should some USS Cole * 100+ event befall them.
http://cadenaser.com/emisora/2017/09/21/sercat/1505997668_008442.html
has a quick look at the cruise ships…Moby Dada has a special message, but only Rhapsody has a pool.
https://elpais.com/elpais/2017/09/20/inenglish/1505917320_788824.html
in English has some retaliatory legal arguments on the referendum.
Why is the US State Dept. so silent on the Catalonia independence controversy? I thought America was a cheerleader for democracy and to let the people choose their own form of government. Remember Arab Spring and Ukraine? Now Spain thwarting a vote of the people in Catalonia with arrests of public officials and a police state – and our country is silent?
Strange how that works.
America IS a cheerleader for democracy; The US State Department is a cheerleader for the US State.
America is a continent not a country,no such thing as an American citizen in the same way that there is no European citizen
America is a country, that’s why for 229 years it’s been named “The United States of America.” It’s pretty widely known. But you can do what everybody else does and just call it “America” for short. “The United” hasn’t caught on as a short name.
Ukraine was Obama sending in the CIA to stage a coup at George Soros’ behest. That isn’t democracy.
Whether it was “fair” or not, Russia has held Crimea for 300+ years and has increased the Russian population in Crimea many fold over those centuries.
Soros wanted to build a gas pipeline that would challenge Gazprom, while giving Soros’ global state crap (the EU, etc) extra income and leverage to dominate Europe… hardly an example of democracy… its corrupt globalists forcing their unelected bureaucracy on citizens who don’t want it.
Bribing… ooops, making campaign contributions… to Obama to get the CIA to stage a coup in Ukraine is not a democracy either. Even if the purpose of the coup (getting Soros’ controlled gas pipeline) wasn’t so tyranical, the coup itself was staged by external actors, the Ukranians and Russians both got caught in the middle.
The US state department is mercifully not on either side of this Catalon fiasco, so their media apparatus isn’t pushing for either side. Simple as that.
What made you think US media outlets were not pushing their own agendas? They are trying to overthrow Trump and put their hand picked crook (Hillary) into office. Staging a coup in the USA trumps staging a coup in Spain — simple as that.
How will the vote take place with no voter rolls, ballot papers and notifications to voters about voting locations?
Seems like the vote is already annulled.
Spain ans in particular, Catalan, have become the new Kabuki theater run by the Three Stooges. Barcelona is not disposed to vote for independence yet those who run the regional government want to force the issue. Without Barcelona, both city and state, Catalan would be no better off than the rest of Spain. But somehow, curtailing an illegal election that some citizens of the region didn’t want must be an abrogation of their civil rights. Notice that the vote is not extended to all those “citizens” of Catalan, ie, those who were born in the region and may or may not speak Catalan and whose ability to speak may be good to poor. The mind boggles at so many non citizens of Spain who egg on this situation and pontificate freedom and liberty as if they were handing out donuts and coffee. Will it all end well? kind of depends on your definition of well and expectation of outcome. Since I have no skin in the game i am willing to let the citizens of Spain sort it out for themselves.
To the clown taunting me about unconstitutional actions, I remind people laws once allowed slavery and once denied women the right to vote. I also remind people the president of Catalonia was freely elected and the people of Catalonia (even mayors who oppose the idea) are in favor of a referendum.
Some things, cannot be taken away by law.
Read Snowden’s Tweets before making idiotic statements
(I have not followed the unconstitutional clowning matter and so do not comment on that.)
Some things can be taken away by power though – and the Spanish government seems to outrank that of Catalunya in that respect.
A vote now in these awkward circumstances will be sufficiently flawed to lack legitimacy even whilst it may fuel the hopes of many Catalans.
Snowden speaks with presumed authority because of his fashionable recent history but he makes uncertain points. Human rights are not natural for we have to agree what they might be: they are constructs of and bestowed by society and sometimes also enshrined in laws. Self-determination arose in the context of colonization: it does not extend to groups of people having the right to overthrow their own government even if they have the power.
How about unconstitutional *and* against basic human rights? Would that be legitimate too? Where is the red line, then?
It is the rational-legal argument ( laws were created to allow society to function, including democracy) vs the traditionalist view that society impulsed law to be created to preserve society, as a representation of it. There really is not an obvious definition of which is right as legal evolution is so complex.
Libertarians certainly will gravitate towards individual choice, choice of creation of own sets, those who follow rational-legal arguments will say that their tradition is what has allowed evolution to this point, that if you dismantle the form at national level by allowing secession, you are working against the rights guaranteed at a national level – anyone can turn their backs on constitutional law.
It is not an argument that squares easily, nor one way nor the other.
Self determination just is. There you are….but afterwards it becomes a construct of defence of own choice of freedom to be as chosen, that implies others around who are also self determining, not necessarily your way. Who wins, can there be trust and accord… it goes deeper than drawing jurisdictions and national status, or changing them… current control was fought bitterly for, hence not likely to be changed or allowed to be altered by spontaneous declaration or vote of a segment of a population, no matter how right it seems to be to do that. That is a reason wars start…everyone is right and everyone is wrong.
Civilization should be like an exclusive club with membership restrictions.
ONLY the civilized are admitted.
Montoro (Spain economy minister) / Catalan VP Junqueras
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DKR4HL1XUAAUATR.jpg
Shall the EU defend its charter? If the EU cannot defend its freedoms guarantee then what use to be a member? Put up or shut up time.
Hotel Cailifornia.
Yeah ok I should have kept spellcheck.
It is interesting that Madrid has concentrated these forces on three large ships tied to docks that protesters can storm.
These ships cannot be defended. They are passenger ships without the numerous weapons platforms of a large war ship.
Madrid has created a set of ‘targets’ to the start of a new Civil War. The resources necessary to sink these targets is limited. Remember the U.S. Cole, Madrid has not.
Sounds like a recipe for disaster. Let’s see… Catalonia… Catalonia… it should be here in my Anarchist Cookbook right after Cannoli and Cantaloupe… wait a minute, this is just a regular cookbook.
Well, I’m sure they’ll improvise something.
A bit of history.
In 1905 some Spanish soldiers assaulted the offices of Catalan paper ¡Cu-Cut! for publishing a cartoon judged by them injurious to the nation. Instead of being disciplined for acting outside of orders, they were praised by the government and king, and a law was created puting written and verbal offences to the country under military jurisdiction. The Catalans were disturbed by all this and a new political movement appeared, combining several varying political parties into a new nationalist Solidaritat Catalan party and majority.
These are pictures from 1906 of the protest/gatherings in Cataluña.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DKRkPPQW4AUl2hP.jpg
A few years later Barcelona and around rioted and rebelled over conscriptions to army service abroad, buildings burned, casualties, all services disconnected, it was isolated and retaken by the army. The excecution of political targets by Spain brought international condemnation and further problems….and so on.
For decades the Region of Catalunya has had control of the Public Education System and of the many Public Mass Media, using tax money from all spanish taxpayers to indoctrinate generations of inhabitants of Catalunya.
This
Having lived around Barcelona for years, I see the Catalan independant movement as a bunch of racist anti-spanish pricks. They imposed by coercion their stupid language (which used to be rarely spoken, and was “resurrected” for segregationist purposes). This possible future new state tramples the rights of the numerous spanish people living in the nort-east of the country.
I am fine with an independant Catalonia, but it should be shrinked so that it only contains half the targeted territory. Then, non-violent ethnic cleansing will be necessary in order to protect the right of castillan people (or catalan ones) trapped in the wrong side of the new border.
The Catalan people have a true and legitimate cause, but it is being used and distorted. What is not understood is that a lot of their power is derived from Spain as a nation, whether in conflict or trade. If you strip that reality away, say after a secession, you end up with two vulnerable nations open to being taken advantage of by outside influence. Cataluña, or an active part of Cataluña, might see benefit and want this influence, Spain as a nation not. The only thing that allowed Spain to cede so much authority to Cataluña was constitutional guarantees of national integrity, now Cataluña feels it has a right to break that constitution on historic and/or modernistic grounds.
Nothing new, in a subtle way it happens across the EU.
The BBC has been receiving EU funding. Various countries receive EU funding and the infrastructure has EU badges on the signage. EU flag on all car registration plates. This is just the start.
Nothing new under the sun, same play book used, just a different distance along the same road. Leads to the same destination.
Mish: https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/857208/Catalan-independence-crisis-military-police-boats-blocked
The question is, what to expect now? Monaco 2.0 or Donbass 2.0?
Borders are a creation of man and not visible to the birds flying above. Much bloodshed and many wars could be avoided if the issues of regime change or borders could be handled in a more rational and constructive way, but do not expect this to happen. Borders and political control is a problem that haunts man since before the written word. The article below written a few years ago highlights the fact we are nothing but pawns to those we have granted power.
http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-issue-of-sovereign-borders.html
A Guardia Civil conversation from where they were besieged in an office….online translated hence small errors :
“Well, I’ll fill in the background. They have left us here to let you know. There is a squad trapped, there are 18 companions who are tucked into an entrenched building. And they are completely entrenched. In fact the vehicles we have lost. The vehicles give them for lost! The GC says that the vehicles they do not want, that it is necessary to remove the companions. They are shuffling possibilities to enter with a helicopter from a rooftop …
Then, until this situation is solved … because the companions are without food and without drinking, all they have is some ammunition and means of mass control. Until this is resolved, we will not leave. ”
They have busted three cars of the grouping of Saragossa and have taken all the things that were inside. They have broken the wheels, painted them, broken the glass… and surrounded them. They’ve left the cars. They have taken the poplars, the weapons … everything that was there, the HKs … Flipas. Three-car, huh? ”
http://www.abc.es/media/espana/2017/09/21/coche-guardia-kpHE–620×349@abc.jpg
The crowd was 40 000 according to state prosecutor, who is pressing for charges of sedition, meaning 8 to 15 yrs. This will increase tensions.
The charge of sedition being sought against those encouraging and organizing.
The Catalan electoral syndicate hands duties over to academic observers so as to avoid legal prosecution
http://www.naciodigital.cat/noticia/138892/sindicatura/electoral/passa/relleu/organismes/academics/internacionals/garantir/1-o
What’s the point in hiring 16000 riot police?
nobody is expecting a riot to occur are they
its just intended to be a peaceful ballot, like Brexit vote.
(unless it was the police who were intending to riot?)
50 Euro-deputies from 18 countries call referendum politically legitimate re-vindication, call on Rajoy to stop repression
http://www.naciodigital.cat/noticia/138881/cinquantena/eurodiputats/reclamen/rajoy/aturi/immediatament/repressio
Liberals talk and talk about their lofty ideals that they want to impose on everyone else but their actions prove that their real agenda is one of “do as I say and not as I do”. ALL big government agendas are, at the end of the day and when push comes to shove, backed up by the credible threat of the use of deadly force. PERIOD. Anyone who wants to oppose big government mandates needs to ask themselves a simple question: what will I do when the armed soldiers move in to stop me? If you don’t have a plan for this then don’t start down the path but if you are determined to go down the path then you damned well better have a way to kill anyone who comes at you because once they send in the armed merc (aka military and police), they will not negotiate or back down. There job will be at that point to put down the uprising of the tax slaves. And make no mistake, that is what the Spain situation is all about. Spain does not want to lose the productive resources of Catalonia as a source of unearned tax revenue and it would as soon kill every man woman and child there as lose the tax base. After all, the zero revenue from a break away province is exactly the same as that to be received if everyone in the region is killed.
Once those mercs departed the ships, it was effectively a military invasion. The only way to stop it would have been for 16000 of the locals to show up with high powered weapons and kill on sight anyone departing the invasion ship. That is what the locals should have done had they any real understanding of how things work in this world.
Just think how much longer the American Indians would have been in control of North America – perhaps still to this day – had they the foresight to kill on sight any intruder on their land. There is no good or bad, moral or amoral judgement to be made here. There is only true or false. If you have the power to defend yourself then you are sovereign and have the power of self destiny. If you cannot defend yourself then you have only illusions of freedom. Why do you think N. Korea is pursuing a nuclear agenda? It has seen what happens to those who disagree with the west without first having the means to defend itself.