Catalonia’s government said 90 percent of those who voted in an unauthorized independence referendum on Sunday chose to split from Spain. According to The Telegraph, 2.26 million people took part in the referendum, which represents a turnout of 42.3 percent of Catalonia’s voters.
Of those 2.26 million people, 2.02 million Catalans voted “yes” to the question: “Do you want Catalonia to become an independent state in the form of a republic?” reports The Telegraph. The Spanish government ruled the referendum illegal, but these results pave the way for the region’s leader to declare independence.
Sunday turned violent when police cracked down on the referendum. The government brought in 4,000 officers. Hundreds were injured in stand-offs with the Spanish police. Officers fired rubber bullets into crowds, reports The Telegraph, and beat people with batons as they waited at polling stations. Police also forced their way into polling stations and removed ballot boxes. According to the Catalan government, 844 people were injured, The Telegraph reports. The Telegraph also writes that there are reports of officers “fighting with elderly voters, some of whom were left bleeding,” and dragging women away from the stations by their hair.
Catalan firefighters stepped in to try to act as human shields and protect voters from the police, The Telegraph reports.
According to The Telegraph, there was “widespread condemnation of the Spanish government’s attempt to crack down on the vote.” But the European Union remained silent on the police tactics.
Borin Johnson, the Foreign Secretary, told the Daily Telegraph, “Obviously we are very anxious about any violence. We hope that things will sort themselves out, though clearly you have to be sensitive to the constitutional proprieties.” He also said that since the referendum is not legal, there are “difficulties.”
Carles Puigdemont, the Catalan leader, previously said he would declare independence unilaterally within 48 hours of the vote if the “yes” side won, writes The Telegraph. Since the referendum, he said the region had “won the right to an independent state.” He said that despite the violence, voting took place in 95 percent of polling stations, reports The Telegraph.
“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 said in a statement aired on television after the polls had closed, The Telegraph reports.
Puigdemont also said that he is going to appeal to the EU to look into alleged human rights violations.
Spain has not wavered in its assertion that the referendum is illegal. Alfonso Dastis, Spain’s foreign minister, said the violence was “unfortunate” and “unpleasant.” However, he also blamed the violence on Puigdemont and his regional government and called it “proportionate.”
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