[Al Jazeera] Catalonia's president has accused Spain's central government of "totalitarian" behaviour, after police jugged
Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un!
the region's junior economy minister and 12 others in raids of Catalan government offices in the run-up to a planned independence referendum.
Carles Puigdemont, the regional leader, denounced Wednesday's operation as "a coordinated aggression by the Spanish government’s police force" in order to stop the Catalans from going ahead with the October 1 vote.
"The Spanish state has by all rights intervened in Catalonia's government and has established emergency rule," Puigdemont said in a televised address.
"We condemn and reject the anti-democratic and totalitarian actions of the Spanish state," he said, adding that Catalans should still turn out in force to vote in the referendum on a split from Spain that the central government in Madrid has declared illegal. |