Chaos in Catalonia

It's fair to say we are living through strange times and days don't come much stranger than today.

At time of writing the news is reporting somewhere in the region of 770 injured people across Catalonia after being attacked by armed riot police, whilst participating in the referendum for independence from Spain.

It is a sad day in many ways as what started broadly as a protest against an austerity government and endemic corruption has descended into a constitutional crisis that has blown up spectacularly. It must be said that both sides have been stubborn and unable to form a dialogue to help serve everyone (with pro and anti-independence opinion being pretty split down the middle) but

In what was an utterly tone deaf response to the threat of secession from Spain, the Madrid government led by Mariano Rajoy effectively threw petrol onto a small bin fire by allowing national police in riot gear to seize ballot boxes in polling stations across Catalonia leading to images and videos that could be compared unfavourably with countries like Venezuela, Russia or Turkey.

The footage makes for uncomfortable viewing as the police attacked elderly voters, women and younger members of the public, all of whom were unarmed, with vicious force. Not at any point were any of the voters aggressive which of course has led to quite a negative view worldwide on sites like Twitter and Facebook.

One has to wonder where the situation will go from here as Madrid has most likely burned any bridges for negotiation but may have also inadvertently showed a dangerous side to it's manner of reacting to crises. Spain has had a difficult time over the last decade with a deep unemployment crisis and growing political apathy in the face of cuts and widespread corruption. There's also been a subtle tightening of many laws (such as the Citizen Safety Law of 2014) on the rights to demonstrate, although public demonstration hasn't gone anywhere since then. One also has to wonder what the rest of Spain will think of this and whether these echos of the Franco era will cause further unrest.

The ramifications of this independence referendum gone wrong could harm more than just the public image and  of Spain. If for example the European Union turns a blind eye to this kind of repression in one of its constituent members then it opens up the question of whether the EU really stands by and defends the standards it claims to uphold.