No word condemning violence of riot police in #Catalonia came from #EU leaders. European Commission press-service issued a statement, referring to its previous position, indicating it is ‘illegal’ format under the Constitution of Spain:

“Under the Spanish Constitution, yesterday’s vote in Catalonia was not legal”

“For the European Commission, as President Juncker has reiterated repeatedly, this is an internal matter for Spain that has to be dealt with in line with the constitutional order of Spain” – the statement continued.

“We also reiterate the legal position held by this Commission as well as by its predecessors. If a referendum were to be organised in line with the Spanish Constitution it would mean that the territory leaving would find itself outside of the European Union.”

“Beyond the purely legal aspects of this matter, the Commission believes that these are times for unity and stability, not divisiveness and fragmentation.”

“We call on all relevant players to now move very swiftly from confrontation to dialogue. Violence can never be an instrument in politics. We trust the leadership of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy to manage this difficult process in full respect of the Spanish Constitution and of the fundamental rights of citizens enshrined therein” – concluded the Commission, supporting PM Rajoy, in spite of the violent crackdown of the peaceful vote.

Meanwhile a Twitter campaign has been launched under the hashtag #RajoyDimisión and has been tweeted an unprecedented 72,000 times just in a few hours: #RajoyDIMISION. The Mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau was keen to throw her support behind the movement.

“Police action against the peaceful population must stop today, in Catalonia and in the State, we have to demand it #resignarajoy,” she tweeted.