No mishaps seemed to have occurred throughout the morning of polling day in Aiguaviva (Gironès), a town of around 700 inhabitants. After casting their vote, a large group of people organized a community lunch in the town’s square. Suddenly, four vans of the Policía Nacional forces rode all the way to the city hall, where around 80 people were guarding the entrance to the building. The neighbours remained calm and silent, with their hands up on the air. Police forces, however, started using their batons against those gathered outside the council and they even threw tear gas at them. Right after that, they broke into the city hall and started to run after a man who was recording the events –on his phone and from inside the building– and they pushed him down the stairs. The neighbours of Aiguaviva declared that the deployment, in which 35 members of the riot squad participated, was unreasonable, and that the violence was disproportionate: they even injured old people, like a man who was thrown to the floor and kicked at.
The Policía Nacional ended up taking the ballot boxes, but rumour has it that they did not take the right ones. However, this will not be confirmed until the end of the vote counting.
Marta Bahía, from Aiguaviva
