Puchdemon: Catalonia advocated independence

Most of the inhabitants of Catalonia at the referendum held on Sunday advocated the formation of a state independent of Spain with a republican form of government. As Reuters reports , the president of the region Carles Puchdemon announced this on the evening of October 1.

According to the Catalan authorities, more than 90 percent of the voted - 2.26 million people advocated independence. The turnout amounted to 42 percent. The referendum, adopted by the parliament in September, did not establish the lower threshold of turnout. On the other hand, in a number of plots of the ballots were confiscated by the Spanish security forces; Accordingly, when counting, they were not taken into account.

In the coming days, he assured Puchdemon, Zeneralitat (Government) of Catalonia will transmit data on the results of voting to the region’s parliament, so that on the basis of these results he proclaims independence. According to the referendum law, the declaration must be issued within 48 hours after the end of the vote.

The President of Catalonia called on European countries to intervene in order to ensure the observance of human rights in the region.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister of Spain Mariano Raha said that the referendum in Catalonia had failed. Raha called the actions of the Catalan authorities "by nowhere." He called on representatives of all political forces of Spain to discuss the current situation.

Meanwhile, in Catalonia, the separatist parties, along with the trade unions, called for further obstacles from Madrid to start a general strike on Tuesday.

The preparation of the referendum on independence has entailed the largest constitutional crisis in Spain over the past few decades. The Basic Law of the Kingdom does not give the regions the right to withdraw from the country. Based on this, the Constitutional Court of Spain suspended the Catalan Law on the referendum.

Further, the authorities in Madrid tried to disrupt the vote. In mid -September, the Central Government took control of the finances of autonomy in order to stop spending money on the preparation of a referendum. A number of large regional officials were detained. In recent days, security forces from the National Police and the Civil Guard were sent before voting to Catalonia. They sealed part of the premises in which it was supposed to open polling stations.

From the early morning on Sunday, thousands of residents of the region, on the call of the organizers of the referendum, gathered at the remaining plots to prevent their capture. The urns for voting were carried there furtively. Zeneralitat allowed residents to vote in any open area if the security forces were closed to their own site, and also declared valid ballots printed on home printers.

However, after the start of the vote, the security forces began to storm the sites and take the urn from there. Referendum participants were detained and beat; In some cases, demonstrators were fired by rubber bullets.

The police themselves did not take part in the acceleration.

In total, 844 people suffered from the actions of the security forces.

In some cases, however, the National Police and the Civil Guard received a rebuff. So, in the city of San Carles de la, the province of Tarragon, the protesters threw the guards with stones and forced them to hide. In total, according to the Spanish Ministry of Internal Affairs, 12 security officials were injured in Catalonia on October 1.