Rajoy denies referendum amid calls for his resignation

Spanish president Mariano Rajoy thanked the majority of Catalans for their civic behaviour on Sunday, after a day of voting in Catalonia that left almost 500 people injured by Spanish riot police. The head of the Spanish government appeared in the evening alongside cabinet members, such as vice president, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, and home affairs minister, José Ignacio Zoido, who described the actions of the Spanish police as “proportional”. 

As long queues continued outside polling stations all over Catalonia, Rajoy, in an evening press appearance in which no questions were allowed, insisted that “most of Catalonia did not take part in the secessionist script” and he insisted that “firmness and serenity” had prevented the independence referendum from going ahead. 

The truth is that October 1 has turned into something of a PR nightmare for Rajoy. The images of Spanish riot police beating members of the Catalan public attempting to vote have shocked the world. “Violence can never be the answer!” tweeted Belgian prime minister, Charles Michel, while UK Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn tweeted that “police violence against citizens in Catalonia is shocking. The Spanish government must act to end it now.”