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Hundreds Injured as Spanish Police Try to Block Catalan Referendum. 
Armed police descended on polling stations in Catalonia
as voters attempted to take part in a banned referendum from Madrid.
If a nation is not represented by the state and sees no possibility of change, it has the every right in the world to choose selfdetermination. That is democracy.
Ours is not a typical nationalist revolution with a strong ethnic background. We haven't made our lives difficult in this way just to replicate Spain on a smaller level, changing the name and the flag but maintaining an antiquated state.
Let no one be sent to prison for their political opinions, or for singing songs against the king. Let's have a state whose citizens are not spied on and where the monarchy is not sacrosanct.
Five years ago, the people of Catalonia decided to become an independent state in the form of a republic. Five years of repression and violating fundamental rights have only served to confirm the reasons why Catalonia wants independence (#CatalanRepublic).
Catalonia’s fiscal balance with the Spanish state has always been negative. Catalonia accounts for just 13.4% of Spain’s public spending. The fiscal deficit represents 8.5% of Catalan GDP, equivalent to over 20 billion euros per year.
Thousands of Catalans went into exile here, in Vienna, to escape the persecution and repression unleashed by the Spanish regime of the Bourbons.
Franco’s dictatorship was yet another attempt to suppress our identity and assimilate us within a dark, authoritarian Spain.
President Companys was captured in France by Gestapo during the WWII and handed over to Spain, sentenced by a martial court and executed by firing squad. Spain has never apologised for the murder of President Companys, nor annulled the sentence against him.
Five years ago, I myself had to go into exile in Belgium, together with a number of my ministers, to defend Catalonia’s rights, freedoms and self-government. We chose exile also in order to be able to defend ourselves before impartial, independent courts.
On October 2017, my government organized a referendum on independence, and the Catalan people overwhelmingly voted in favour, in a day marked by the repression of the Spanish police, who seized thousands of ballot papers in their attacks on polling stations.
The Catalan government approached the Spanish government to express its willingness to negotiate an agreed resolution to the conflict. We heard the calls for dialogue at an international level. Nevertheless, as always, Spain refused any kind of negotiation.
Last year, the Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe (@coe) approved a resolution against the political and judicial persecution of the Catalan pro-independence movement.
Just a few days ago, the Human Rights Office of United Nations@UNHumanRights confirmed the violation of the political rights of the Catalan pro-independence politicians.
Last week we received a response from the European Commission (@EU_Commission) that stated that Spain has failed to comply with 61% of the rulings of European Court of Human Rights (@ECHR_CEDH) and has taken over three years to comply with the rest.
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