Prosecution orders identification of referendum polling agents

The Spanish prosecutor has ordered the Catalan police, the Mossos d'Esquadra, to identify and investigate referendum polling agents on October 1. The aim, according to the prosecution, is to "question them" and get "any documentation" that they might have relating to the vote.

Meanwhile, the head of the Catalan police, the Mossos, did not attend a joint meeting of Spain’s police forces today in Barcelona. Instead, Josep-Lluís Trapero decided to send a subordinate.

It was the first meeting after this weekend’s decision in Madrid to take control of the body he commands. On Saturday, Spain’s Attorney General ordered all police forces — including the Mossos — to be managed from Spain’s Ministry of Home Affairs. The decision, the Attorney General said, was aimed at “preventing crime and maintaining public order.”

Yet this weekend’s announcement was immediately rejected in Barcelona. The Catalan government said the Mossos would not accept the decision. In fact, they even said they would study a legal response to the attempt to take over the Mossos, which they deemed “unacceptable”. And that's the message they conveyed in today's meeting.

This is the latest episode in a series of highly charged events that reached a tipping point last Wednesday, in which a major anti-referendum operation saw dozens of buildings raided and several top officials in the Catalan government arrested. The operation prompted large yet peaceful protests that went on until all the Catalan officials were released. The prosecution, however, filled a sedition lawsuit against the organizers of the protests.

As political tensions rise and the day of the referendum gets closer, increasingly more police officers from across Spain have arrived in Catalonia. To house them, several ships have docked in the port of Barcelona. One of the ships has images of Warner Bros cartoons on its side, sparking widespread ridicule on social media.