Catalonia Police Reject Madrid Orders: Barring Invasion, the Vote Will Take Place

Barring a mass invasion by Spanish government troops, it appears the vote in Catalonia will take place.

Given the importance of the story, Western media is amazingly silent. Stories are few and far between.

We have not even see Tweet 1 from President Trump. Let’s take a look at the latest news and Tweets that I can find.

US News reports Catalonia Refuses to Give Police Over to Spain

Catalonia’s top security official says the regional government is refusing to hand over control of a regional police force to Spanish central authorities who are trying to stop a referendum on independence.

The announcement by the Catalan interior chief Joaquim Forn followed a move by Spain’s Interior Ministry to take over coordinating all policing efforts to stop the Oct. 1 Catalan independence vote that the Spanish government considers illegal.

The measure would mean that Madrid would send direct orders to the regional Mossos d’Esquadra police, who have been criticized for not cracking down hard enough on preparations for the vote.

Forn said the chief of the Mossos d’Esquadra had expressed his opposition to the measure during a meeting Saturday with the top state prosecutor in Catalonia and chiefs of two other national police forces, the National Police and the Civil Guard.

Forn says “we denounce the attempt by the state to intervene in the police forces of Catalonia.”

Bloomberg reports Spain Rebuffed in Boosting Control Over Catalonia’s Police.

Police in Spain’s rebel region of Catalonia rejected giving more control to the central government in defiance of authorities in Madrid who are trying to suppress an independence referendum on Oct. 1.

The SAP union, the largest trade group for the 17,000-member Mossos d’Esquadra regional force, said it would resist hours after prosecutors Saturday ordered that it accept central-government coordination. The rejection echoed comments by Catalan separatist authorities.

“We don’t accept this interference of the state, jumping over all existing coordination mechanisms,” the region’s Interior Department chief Joaquim Forn said in brief televised comments. “The Mossos won’t renounce exercising their functions in loyalty to the Catalan people.”

Those stories, nearly identical, were from this morning. Here are some key Tweets.

Once again, I fully support the inherent rights of self-determination of the people in any state. Let’s emphasize that in a Tweet.

Mike “Mish” Shedlock