Among the Catalan regional government figures reportedly swept up in the arrests: Josep Maria Jove, secretary general of economic affairs, and Lluis Salvado, secretary of taxation.
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It’s all kicking off in Catalonia, the northeastern region of Spain that’s preparing for a referendum on its independence at the start of October. Repeated attempts to open negotiations between the two camps over issues such as taxes and infrastructure investment have failed over the past five years.
With tensions mounting, separatist organisations called for more people to protest as leaders in a region deeply divided over independence pressed ahead with preparations for the October 1 vote.
The Barcelona mayor tweeted that, it is a “scandal” for the government to search institutions and to arrest public officials in this manner, adding that, “Barcelona stands by Catalan institutions and defends Catalan self-rule”.
Authorities raid regional government ministries and arrest aide to Catalan vice president.
Spanish law enforcement has been closing in on separatist activists over the past week, after the Catalan Parliament legislated earlier this month for the referendum and approved the foundations for a Catalan republic in defiance of Spain’s Constitutional Court.
The crackdown has been met with condemnation by the Catalan president as well as large street protests.
Days ahead of planned vote for Catalan independence, the Spain government made its biggest move to stop it from happening as the police detained a dozen senior Catalan officials and raided regional government ministries involved in organising the vote.
Carles Puigdemont described the raids as “a co-ordinated police assault” that showed that Madrid “has de facto suspended self-government and applied a de facto state of emergency” in Catalonia. He offered no further detail but pledged to continue the investigation’s into the regional government “until the end”.
“In those demonstrations, you see the people who go but you don’t see the people who don’t go, who are way more and are at home because they don’t like what’s happening”, Inigo Mendez de Vigo said.
As the referendum date nears, Mr. Rajoy, who leads a minority government, finds himself under increasing pressure in Madrid to explain how the conflict over possible Catalan secession spun out of control. He also called for activists to take to the streets.
Spanish government security forces have chartered three cruise ships to billet 4,000 national police officers and Guardia Civil gendarmes being deployed to Catalonia.
According to recent polls, about 41 percent of people in the region support independence.
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The Spanish government has declared the Oct 1. referendum on self-determination illegal. Officials said 80 percent of them backed independence.
