Flash news on Catalonia's Independence Process

** According to a survey by the Barcelona newspaper La Vanguardia 45% of Spanish citizens would accept a self-determination referendum in Catalonia and 51% would reject it. Another poll by Madrid’s newspaper El País states that 30% of Spaniards believe that the government should "reject the result of the referendum for independence if their supporters get a majority" or else obstruct independence "using all possible means and resources". This percentage (30%) is slightly higher than the 27% who would accept the results, but lower than the 35% of Spaniards who would commit to re-negotiating a new constitutional framework for maintaining Catalonia in Spain.

**FRANCISCO PEREZ  DE LOS COBOS, president of the Spanish Constitutional Court declared in a public speech in 2005 that: “The Catalans have been educated for the contempt towards Spanish culture". PEREZ DE LOS COBOS was a candidate in lists of the far right in the parliamentary elections of 1977, the first free elections after Franco's dictatorship. Also, a few months ago it was found that he had been affiliated to the Popular Party, contravening the law that doesn’t allow judges any political militancy.

** A far-right group stormed into the Catalan government delegation to Madrid to prevent the events for the National Day of Catalonia. The attackers intimidated the attendees, among whom were members and representatives of foreign embassies such as the U.S.. The head of the command is IÑIGO PEREZ DE HERRASTI URQUIJO, the cousin of the current Defense Minister, PEDRO MORENES and brother-in-law of the Secretary of Esat for the EU, IÑIGO MENDEZ VIGO, whose sister BEATRIZ MENDEZ VIGO is considered to be number 2 of CNI, the Spanish Secret Service. After testifying at court the attacker group was released with charges.

**The day after the VIA CATALANA, the Madrid daily newspaper ABC described the human chain like an "act of sedition".  In the editorial of 16th of September it demanded the government the application of Article 155 of the Constitution to Catalonia which provides for the suspension of the autonomy and is equivalent to a state of emergency.

**PAU PINTO, a PP councilor in Lleida, Catalonia, published in his Facebook account -and then deleted- a message in which he accused of “murderers” all those people who went to the human chain on the 11th of September,  for allowing the participation of Basque militants that he likens to terrorists of ETA.

**The AME, the most important association of Spanish army members, issued a statement in which it suggests armed intervention and the division of Catalonia into two states, based on an alleged national origin of the citizens. This is the first military (and ethnicist) threat since the process of sovereignty of Catalonia started. AME newsletter.

**MONTSE  SUAREZ , journalist and analyst of the TV channels Tele 5, COPE 13TV and CUATRO compares in Twitter the speeches of Catalan President Artur Mas with Nazi propaganda. According to SUÁREZ, the only difference is that "for the time being, nobody is being killed in Catalonia".

** CARLOS MARTINEZ GORRIARAN, a deputy of the Spanish nationalist party UPyD, warns in TWITTER that the sovereignty process of Catalonia could lead to a civil war. UPyD , led by the former socialist ROSA DÍAZ, has repeatedly called for the suspension of the Catalan autonomy by applying Article 155 of the Constitution.

** JUAN CARLOS RODRIGUEZ IBARRA , a Spanish Socialist Party leader and ex-president of the regional government of Extremadura compared yet again the process of self-determination of Catalonia with Hitler's Germany and Mussolini's Italy.

**THE NATIONAL FRANCISCO FRANCO FOUNDATION- FNFF, which has close ties to the family and collaborators of the dictator issued a proclamation calling for military intervention –a coup d’état- to prevent the self-determination process in Catalonia. The FNFF reminds that, under Article 8 of the Spanish constitution, it behoves to the army to ensure the national unity of Spain.