AMY GOODMAN: I’m Amy Goodman in New York. Juan González is at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, as we end today’s show by looking at the escalating conflict in Spain over Sunday’s independence referendum in the northeast region of Catalonia. More than 800 people were injured, after Spanish police stormed polling stations, tried to forcibly prevent people from voting, firing tear gas and physically attacking prospective voters. The Spanish government says the referendum was illegal. Ahead of Sunday’s vote, Spanish police seized control of ballots and fliers, raided the Catalan regional government’s offices, even shut down pro-independence websites.
Late on Sunday night, the Catalan regional government said 90 percent of Catalan voters chose independence. The Catalan government now says it plans to unilaterally declare independence from Spain within 48 hours. Spain says it will neither recognize the results of the referendum nor a declaration of independence. The escalating conflict is being described as the biggest constitutional crisis in Spain since the end of the Franco dictatorship in the ’70s.
For more, we’re joined by two guests. In Cleveland, Ohio, Sebastiaan Faber is with us, professor of Hispanic studies at Oberlin College, author of the forthcoming book Memory Battles of the Spanish Civil War: History, Fiction, Photography. He’s co-author of a piece in The Nation magazine headlined “Have Spain and Catalonia Reached a Point of No Return?” And here in New York, Pau Faus is with us, a filmmaker and writer from Barcelona, Spain. His recent documentary is about the mayor of Barcelona. It’s called Ada for Mayor, following the campaign of Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau.
We welcome you both to Democracy Now! Let us begin with Sebastiaan Faber. Give us context. What happened leading up to this cataclysm that took place yesterday in Catalonia, 800 people injured by Spanish police?
SEBASTIAAN FABER: Well, actually, the story starts about seven years ago, when the…