Catalan Leader: “We Have Earned The Right To Form An Independent State”
Though the results of today’s referendum have yet to be announced, separatists in Catalonia are urging the government to declare independence from Spain, citing today’s violent crackdown as the reason. In a rousing speech following the close of voting, Carles Puigdemont, the leader of the Catalan government, said his citizens have earned the right to form an independent state and that the results of the referendum, to be announced shortly, will be sent to the local parliament for ratification.
Though the central government in Spain declared the refendum illegal, and sent federal Civil Guard and National Police forces to try and suppress the vote in a dramatic crackdown that sent shockwaves around the globe, police only managed to shut down a small sliver of polling stations, allowing many in the region of more than 7 million people which has a larger economy than Portugal, to cast ballots.
(1) A vosaltres, que heu ensenyat al món el civisme d’un poble pacífic, que heu resistit vexacions i repressió, us dono les gràcies #1Oct
In his public remarks, delivered shortly after a speech from Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, Puigdemont also said that “with this day of hope and suffering, the citizens of Catalonia have won the right to an independent state in the form a republic.” He also said that the EU could no longer “continue to look the other way” from human rights violations around the referendum, according to a translation in the Guardian.
“The Spanish government has today written a shameful page in its relationship with Catalonia,” adding that there had been abuses of human rights committed by Spanish police.
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