5am outside an voting centre
It doesn’t matter what happens in Cataluña today; whether there is a massive turnout or whether it fizzles out like a damp firework, Spain has changed for good; for better or worse.
Catalan citizens have camped out in the public schools to stop the police closing them – public schools are always used as voting stations. On the Central Government side they say that 160 schools have been occupied and on the ‘rebel’ side, they say that there are over a thousand.
From five in the morning, people have been turning up with flasks of coffee to support the squatters and voting urns have been appearing.
In the meantime, the Central Government bleats, “It’s an illegal referendum and has no international support.” Well, the fact is, no matter what they Government rightly claims, the referendum is going ahead.
An ardent supporter of Catalan independence and a Seaside Gazette contributor, Robin MacArthur, is one of those occupying one of the schools and has been keeping up a stream of Whatsapp posts.
The rebels have introduced a universal voting system meaning that unlike normal elections where you have to vote in a designated voting centre, you can vote in any one and all voting centres are linked to one central command. The Central Government says that this last-minute change merely emphasises that the referendum lacks all credibility. The fact remains, however, that referendum day has arrived and voting centres are opening.
As for the Catalan regional police, they have not evicted any of the schools at the time of writing, and according to a source consulted on the spot by our contributor, “they turned a blind eye.”
This is not just about people wanting to vote for independence and are being prevented from doing so, but it is also about people wanting to vote to remain part of Spain and are being prevented from doing so, which pretty much sums up the Mariano Rajoy Government’s failure, having used and clung to a tactic of simply “no, no, no,” offering no alternative..
We shall keep you informed as the day develops.
(News: Cataluña)