Petition to make Mariano Rajoy resign over Catalonia referendum violence

[HelloPossums]

AIBU to ask you all to please sign and share? Already at 265,000 signatures and counting.

(Sorry the link is written in Spanish! It just means - Rajoy, resign now.)

Thanks, everyone :)

secure.avaaz.org/campaign/es/dimision_ya/?fpla

It's only the likely result if it's handled how it was... it's not an inevitable consequence of either the vote or people demonstrating to be allowed to vote.

Absolutely. Completely agree.

Now, you all knew if you went out to post a vote on this topic you'd have the shit beaten out of you.

Victim blaming at its finest.

I've signed, and just in case anyone is in doubt about what they are signing about.....

Oh yeah, this is definitely a proportional response....

No matter what the legality of the vote, it could have, would have, been peaceful if they had just let them get on with it.
Madrid were under no obligation to accept the referendum.

Instead it was met with such violence, it has almost guaranteed that more people will move to the Independence side.

Utterly disgusting behaviour by a so called modern democratic state.

Link to a video on youtube....
You only have to watch 20 seconds in before the completely unprovoked police violence begins....

But I thought the police had acted 'with serenity'? 🤔

The situation in Catalonia is upsetting and action is required however the best response from Britain would be to contact MPs and the Foreign Office urging diplomatic pressure be applied to offer humanitarian support and raise legitimate legal queries.

The last time Britons waded into Spanish politics with volunteers fighting in the civil war it was poorly organised and co-ordinated and when the civil war ended Spaniards who had helped foreign fighters were tortured and illigetimate children were born to women who then suffered stigmatisation.

In nearly forty years of fascist dictatorship Spain suffered from famine and international isolation. Britain accepted Spaniards on a program where they were allowed entry if childless to work in domestic service but not as political refugees unless well connected. The Spaniards who came in the fifties were greeted with mixed welcomes and often racism. Casual, lazy stereotypes persist.

So, no on this occasion Britons, save those who actually live and work in Spain, engaging in Spanish politics is not welcome.

Just a personal opinion.

Utterly disgusting behaviour by a so called modern democratic state Spain has only been a 'democracy' for just over 40 years and even in the early years it was challenged by a military coup. The events on Sunday show that democracy must never be taken for granted. Joining the EU (or EEC then) was meant to help anchor Spain to other democratic countries and aid its transition to democracy. The EU is supposed to defend democracy. Isn't that why many people wanted to see Ukraine join? Yet the EU despises nationalism as it is a challenge to its supranational identity. Therefore it stands back and watches.
I'm Scottish and no nationalist but I will strongly defend the right of others to express their views even if I disagree. The more you suppress people, the more extreme their views will become. I suspect many in Catalonia will never forgive the national government for those horrible scenes.

Now, you all knew if you went out to post a vote on this topic you'd have the shit beaten out of you.

Victim blaming at its finest.

That is not what I said. The Catalan separatist politicians were not the victims of violence. They are the ones I accuse of sacrificing 'their' citizens for their own goals - they knowingly encouraged people to go and vote in the illegal referendum, to push past police, to occupy polling stations.

I'm sure we'd love it if some Spaniards started petitions about our politics.

declared the independence of Catalonia with the consent of far fewer than half its citizens

We could apply this same logic to the EU referendum. As far as I'm aware, the EU referendum passed with the consent of far fewer than half of Britain's citizens.

Not really. Anyone who had an opinion on the EU referendum could easily go and vote; they had no reason not to. The Catalan referendum was illegal. Those who do not want to separate from Spain (actually likely the majority going by opinion polls and the last regional election) had to validate the process by taking part in it if they wanted to have their views count. To vote on Sunday, they had to go against court orders of a state they support, go along with the illegal scheme of politicians they don't support, and risk their personal safety to get to the polling station through crowds of protestors and police.

Many 'no' supporters would have chosen to boycott the whole affair, which unfortunately just allows the separatists to shout about getting a super high vote share for them. They aren't going to admit that it was illegitimate, that they are basically declaring they won a race in which they were the only competitor.

It's hardly comparable to the validity of the EU referendum and its low turnout. As it happens I think referendums should have minimum turnouts and majorities put in place in advance, so the EU referendum shouldn't have passed. But still, it is not comparable to the choices that had to be made by a 'no' voter in Catalonia.

And again, I still don't agree with the levels of police violence we saw, especially against people who looked like they were just walking out of polling stations.

But we non-Spanish should not be sticking our noses in and signing petitions like this. It's silly.

"they knowingly encouraged people to go and vote in the illegal referendum, to push past police, to occupy polling stations."

Outside of Barcelona, where it was just the Mossos doing the policing, it was all pretty civilised though... they came along every couple of hours, people quietly occupied and they moved on again until the next time.

So again, the violence wasn't caused by encouraging people to do that in places where that wasn't met by violence...

No matter what the legality of the vote, it could have, would have, been peaceful if they had just let them get on with it.
Madrid were under no obligation to accept the referendum.

*Instead it was met with such violence, it has almost guaranteed that more people will move to the Independence side.

Totally agree.

Yamayo Generally the Mossos did. The national police and Guardia Civil did not.