Imogen CalderwoodCATALAN leader Artur Mas has vowed to go ahead with Sunday’s independence vote, despite a ban from the Spanish government.
Spain has reportedly sent armoured vehicles to Catalan, to deal with any potential backlash from the vote.
Going against the latest in a string of legal challenges from Madrid, on November 9, will set up a constitutional conflict unprecedented in post-Franco Spain.
Mas promised to defend the Catalan ‘right to decide’, saying: “We have decided to carry on with this participative process… All peoples have the right to decide their future.
“We are defending fundamental rights protected by basic laws: freedom of conscience, freedom of participation and freedom of expression.”
The vote, however, will not be a ‘referendum’. It will be organised by volunteers without an official electorial roll.
But by going ahead Mas will be putting himself in a very precarious position.
“If they go ahead, it will be civil disobedience – not for the people who vote but for the public officials involved. That is a penal offence,” said Yolanda Gomez, a constitutional law expert at Spain’s distance-learning university UNED.
Armoured vehicles to stop people ‘voting’. Hmm, sounds like the old Spain to me.
A shining example to the world, not!
Fred I donot think you are stupid but what can they do? Are you for full anarchy every litle place shouid be free to do what they want beliving that EU should pay them through.
Armoured vehicles? Who or what will they fire their cannons at? Can picture them now, bowling along Las Ramblas, mowing down the tourists. (Starting with the stag parties with any luck)
@kb, in this case what “they” do is just allow the people to carry out an unofficial vote. As the article says above, “it will be organised by volunteers without an official electorial roll”. So that is what they should do.
Rajoy is a dead man walking . The people of Spain need to elect a new party to power. The PP and PSOE are corrupt to the core and should really never be allowed into power again (not without massive ground-up reforms). Unfortunately, some people like corruption and vote for people that best serve and behave like them. Democracy has its limitations.
Tanks, really? They just had a huge rally in September, with thousands of people on the street. There were no problems. If something flares up, I suspect it will be the government who triggers it.
Yes, 78 tanks, two F-15 squadrons, three submarines and seven destroyers… Who the hell write this news??