The political violation of civil and political rights of the Spanish government against the Catalan self-determination movement has different levels and acts at different intensities, making it difficult to determine its ultimate scope. State police forces have used violence as a coercive measure to inflict physical harm on mobilized citizens, but also to intimidate society as a whole. The Spanish judiciary, for its part, has acted with all its might to weaken the entire movement: from its leaders to grassroots activism. A separate chapter has been the indiscriminate use of the Court of Auditors to try to ruin the lives of people who have worked diligently to promote the country and its future. Finally, this year it has been made public that state repression has no limits, from cyberespionage with Pegasus to the infiltration of national police into youth organizations. It has been proved that Spain’s violation of civil and political rights has no limits: from cyberespionage with Pegasus, to the infiltration of the Spanish police in youth organizations and social movements, or the listening and monitoring of people linked to grassroots independence or the use of the Spanish patriotic police in dirty war operations against the Catalan independence movement.

The violation of civil and political rights had already taken place previously against the democratic attempts of Catalan citizens and institutions to exercise the right to decide. The first independence consultations carried out at the municipal level, which began on September 13, 2009 in Arenys de Munt; or the case throughout Catalonia for the November 9, 2014 consultation, are two relevant cases. The latter involved criminal prosecution with a conviction for disobedience of the President of the Generalitat (Artur Mas) and the councilors (Joana Ortega and Irene Rigau) by the TSJC and nearly 5 million euros against the three politicians, in addition to Francesc Homs and six senior civil servants for the costs of the consultation decreed by the Court of Auditors, a prelude to what occured after the Referendum of the 1st October 2017.

The figures presented below are a first approximation of a rights violation against an entire cross-cutting political movement. This sets a scenario of living political conflict.