Spain's King condemns Catalan leaders as thousands take to streets

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Spain's King condemns Catalan leaders as thousands take to streets

By Sam Edwards

 

Spain's King Felipe gestures as he make an statement at Zarzuela Palace in Madrid, Spain, October 3, 2017. Casa de SM El Rey/Francisco Gomez Handout via REUTERS

 

BARCELONA (Reuters) - Spain's King Felipe VI on Tuesday accused Catalan secessionist leaders of shattering democratic principles and dividing Catalan society, as thousands took to the streets to protest against a violent police crackdown against the banned independence referendum held on Sunday.

 

The televised speech, a rare intervention by the 49-year-old monarch who is normally silent on politics, was a sign of how deeply Spain has been shaken by the Catalan vote and a police crackdown that injured 900 people.

 

On Tuesday tens of thousands of Catalans demonstrated in the streets of the northeastern region against action by the police who tried to disrupt Sunday's vote by firing rubber bullets and charging into crowds with truncheons.

Tuesday's protests shut down road traffic, public transport and businesses.

 

The referendum and its aftermath have plunged Spain into its worst constitutional crisis in decades, and are a political test for Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, a conservative who has taken a hard line stance on the issue.

 

Late Tuesday Catalonia's leader, Carles Puigdemont, told the BBC that the region will declare independence in a matter of days.

 

Pro-independence parties who control the regional government staged Sunday's referendum in defiance of the Constitutional Court, which had ruled that the vote violated Spain's 1978 constitution which states the country is indivisible.

 

Catalonia, Spain's richest region, has its own language and culture and a political movement for secession that has strengthened in recent years.

 

Those who participated in Sunday's ballot voted overwhelmingly for independence, a result that was expected since residents who favour remaining part of Spain mainly boycotted the referendum. Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont has said the result is valid and must be implemented.

 

Outside of Catalonia, Spaniards mostly hold strong views against its independence drive. In his televised address, the king said the "irresponsible behaviour" of the Catalan leaders had undermined social harmony in the region.

 

"Today Catalan society is fractured and in conflict," he said. "They (the Catalan leaders) have infringed the system of legally approved rules with their decisions, showing an unacceptable disloyalty towards the powers of the state."

 

The king said the crown was strongly committed to the Spanish constitution and to democracy, and underlined his commitment to the unity and permanence of Spain. He had earlier met Rajoy to discuss the situation in Catalonia.

 

Opinion polls conducted before the vote suggested a minority of around 40 percent of residents in the region backed independence. But a majority wanted a referendum to be held, and the violent police crackdown angered Catalans across the divide.

 

"I'm not in favour of independence, but I'm against repression," said Erwin, a 25-year-old pilot at one demonstration, wearing a Spanish flag. One of his companions was wearing the red-and-yellow striped Catalan flag.

 

Several demonstrations unfolded across Catalonia on Tuesday. To the north of Barcelona, a line of tractors moved down a road blocked to traffic, accompanied by protesters chanting "Independence!" and "The streets will always be ours!"

 

FC Barcelona, the city’s football club, joined the strike, saying it would close for the day and none of its teams would train. Carmaker SEAT <VOWG_p.DE> was forced temporarily to shut a production line when a road closure cut supplies.

 

Crowds gathered outside the local headquarters of Spain's ruling People's Party (PP) and the Spanish national police headquarters in Barcelona, whistling and waving the red-and-yellow regional flag.

 

"What happened on Oct. 1 has fired up independence feeling that will never die," said 18-year-old student Monica Ventinc, who attended a protest on Tuesday.

 

On financial markets, Spain's 10-year borrowing costs hit their highest level in nearly three months as tensions between Madrid and Catalonia spilled on to the streets.

 

(Additional reporting by Adrian Croft and Julien Toyer in Madrid; writing by Sonya Dowsett and Adrian Croft; editing by Peter Graff)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-10-04

[dundee48]

Way to go king,shouldn`t he be trying to relieve tensions rather than escalate them.

[DoctorG]

Once again we are shown that those that govern are not really all that smart. The clever thing to have done would have been to simply allow Catalan to hold their referendum peacefully, and then just ignore the result.

Sending in the stormtroopers has fired up the population so now the undecided are now shifting to the positive.

I am not Spanish and I accept that I might be totally wrong.

[observer90210]

History seems to repeat itself as Spain is no new to civil war and strong social tensions...

[Grouse]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-41474674

 

This is worth a read

[flossie35]

Haven't seen anything like this since Franco. Idiotic. There's no majority (or at least there wasn't) for independence, partly because there's a large non-Catalan minority in the province. Could have been solved politically, and peacefully. Intervention of (non-elected) king not helpful.

[SABloke]

I love when non-elected heads of state talk about democracy 

[Grouse]

58 minutes ago, SABloke said:

I love when non-elected heads of state talk about democracy 

 

So you're not a royalist then?

 

Remember the Republicans got rid of the King in the early '30s

 

Spain's democracy has worked well for the past 40 years

 

The separatists are greedy and led by the usual power hungry intellectually impoverished types.

[BuaBS]

The reason why the EU is quiet about what happened Sunday :

[Baerboxer]

4 hours ago, Grouse said:

 

So you're not a royalist then?

 

Remember the Republicans got rid of the King in the early '30s

 

Spain's democracy has worked well for the past 40 years

 

The separatists are greedy and led by the usual power hungry intellectually impoverished types.

 

That's a pretty good summary Grousy! I'm impressed.

 

Will unload the shotgun for now 

[Baerboxer]

1 hour ago, BuaBS said:

The reason why the EU is quiet about what happened Sunday :

 

Interesting that your nice little colorful map shows an unaffected Germany! A nation that's only been in existence since 1870; much younger than the US!

 

[BuaBS]

5 hours ago, Baerboxer said:

unaffected Germany!

Unaffected Germany ? Look closer please.

And thanks , I coloured it myself

[midas]

No one power has ever defied the exact parameters of terrorism and surely it's easy for Spain to argue the protesters actions fall within this definition. They are after all trying to grab some of the central government's power.

At least we can pretty much guarantee that the definition of “terrorist material” will expand over time to whatever politicians don’t want the general public exposed to.

Perhaps it's only a matter of time until the  public won't even be allowed to watch the kind of stuff going on in Catalonia on their television if the independence movement spreads to other regions of Europe and protesters are branded as " terrorists ". Other governments in desperation could introduce similar legislation  as they are now going to do in the UK who are now saying it will be illegal to view  " terrorist propaganda " (  as yet undefined) in the privacy of their own home . The Nazi party did this and put people in jail for listening to the BBC world service during WW2. We are on a very very slippery slope.....................

 

Amber Rudd: viewers of online terrorist material face 15 years in jail

 

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/oct/03/amber-rudd-viewers-of-online-terrorist-material-face-15-years-in-jail

[stevenl]

49 minutes ago, BuaBS said:

Unaffected Germany ? Look closer please.

And thanks , I coloured it myself

Doesn't surprise me you coloured it yourself, really bad map that has nothing at all to do with reality.