“The apparent attempt[s] to use criminal law to suppress political expression recalls some of the darkest moments of Spain’s recent history.” A hint to Franco’s fascist Spain?
The Spanish army and national police are raiding and arresting pro-independence activists and Catalonian community leaders in Catalonia, while government in Madrid is freezing funds and attempting to take control of the Mossos (regional police) in an attempt to block the regional push for independance from going ahead. The current independance movement is said to have links back to 2011 and the local Occupy protests, the “indignados”. Real democracy in action.
I have a professional interest in the region as its the home of guifi.net/en which is one of the most successful community wireless networks in the world (I’m working on a local meshnet project in my spare time).
Interestingly there appears to be a lot of support from Catalonia coming from Scotland, who have a huge vibrant pro-independence movement of their own. Some incredible tweets I found: