Catalonia’s Independence Vote Descends Into Chaos and Clashes<br />“We have acted with the law and only with the law and we have shown<br />that our democratic state has resources to defend itself against such a serious attack.”<br />Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, Spain’s deputy prime minister, praised the Spanish police<br />for blocking a vote that “couldn’t be celebrated and wasn’t celebrated.”<br />She told a news conference that the Catalan government had acted “with absolute irresponsibility,<br />which had to be overcome by the professionalism of the security forces.”<br />After the extent of the crackdown became apparent, Ada Colau, the left-wing mayor of Barcelona,<br />called on Mr. Rajoy to resign over his “cowardly” and unjustified police intervention.<br />After watching the police intervene, he said that the “police have nothing to do with the democratic process — they shouldn’t be here.”<br />Hundreds of people were hurt as the Spanish police closed polling stations and seized ballot boxes during Catalonia’s independence vote on Sunday.<br />“You simply can’t use violence against people who just want to vote.”<br />Despite the police threat, Mr. Pulpillo, who uses a wheelchair, said he went to vote “to make sure this was<br />our feast of democracy, not our humiliation at the hands of a Spanish state that believes in repression.”<br />Voters like him made the turnout an extraordinary show of determination in the face of a steady drumbeat of threats from Madrid.
