Very good speech last night by the King.
I had to smile at placards saying EU where are you? The EU is hardly going to come running to support break away nations and condemn police violence. That doesn't fit the script. IF they became independent then they would have to apply for EU membership, fulfil the criteria and get 27 member state approval. I cannot see a situation where Spain would approve.
The whole scenario is very divisive and one wrong step could turn things nasty. Thankfully the Spanish interior minister saw sense on Sunday and changed the plans to occupy the voting stations till they closed and then to seize the ballot boxes.
No scene showed the depth of feelings and the rift between Catalunia and rest of Spain more than the shots on Tv this morning of protesters chanting go home to the police outside their hotel and the police inside chanting nationalistic stuff in response.
The next few days are crucial.
Its a difficult one, as you know the history of Catalonia goes back many hundreds of years, and wasn't helped by Royal Marriages and that Franko chap, maybe (if) they could push for a reconsidered request for an Independent Referendum then they would gain more support from outside of Spain, but doesnt always happen that way or gets blocked by political or Government rulings.
Worth remembering though the start of Solidarity in Poland back in the 1980's under the Russian Communism, it didn't exactly start with a legal Referendum, it was powered by the People, which in turn managed the result they set out to achieve.