Catalonia calls for countrywide strike to protest mass police violence at referendum

Pro-independence groups and trade unions in Catalonia have called for a countrywide general strike to take place Tuesday October 3, following a weekend of violence after Catalonians voted to break from Spain in an independence referendum.

The La Vanguardia newspaper cited Jordi Cuixart, the head of Omnium Cultural - an independent organisation which promotes Catalan culture - as the person who is calling for the strike, according to Reuters.

Catalonia’s regional government say that 844 people were injured during polling day after police fired rubber bullets and controlled people trying to vote with force.

Carles Puigdemont, the Catalan President, lambasted the Spanish government for the way it dealt with the vote, saying “the unjustified, disproportionate and irresponsible violence of the Spanish state today has not only failed to stop Catalans' desire to vote but has helped to clarify all the doubts we had to resolve today.”

The region “has won the right to become an independent state,” he continued.

Over two million people from Catalonia – 90 per cent –have voted saying “yes” for independence from Spain.

However, the Spanish government have repeatedly stated that they do not recognise the vote; much less the results and Premier Mariano Rajoy stated that “there was no referendum, just a pretext of one.”

He accused the Catalan government of using the referendum as a tactic against legality and democratic harmony. A path, he says, which will “lead to nowhere”.

The controversial poll was pushed through the Catalan parliament in June but the court in Madrid said it violated the Spanish Constitution which refers to "the indissoluble unity of the Spanish nation, the common and indivisible homeland of all Spaniards" in September.