On the morning of 26 October, the Catalan and Spanish government had reached an agreement whereby Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy would not proceed with suspending Catalonia’s devolved powers, provided President Carles Puigdemont would not make a formal declaration of independence and call regional elections immediately.

This would have been a heavy blow to the independence movement, as its leaders would have failed to fulfil the democratic mandate of the previous regional elections in September 2015, when pro-independence parties won an absolute majority – a mandate that was reaffirmed by the independence referendum held in Catalonia on 1 October.

Timeline Eight key moments in the Catalan independence campaign Show Spain’s constitutional court strikes down parts of a 2006 charter on Catalan autonomy that had originally increased the region’s fiscal and judicial powers and described it as a “nation”. The court rules that using the word “nation” has no legal value and also rejects the “preferential” use of Catalan over Spanish in municipal services. Almost two weeks later, hundreds of thousands protest on the streets of Barcelona, chanting “We are a nation! We decide!” At the height of Spain’s economic crisis, more than a million people protest in Barcelona on Catalonia’s national day, demanding independence in what will become a peaceful, annual show of strength. The pro-independence government of Artur Mas defies the Madrid government and Spain’s constitutional court by holding a symbolic vote on independence. Turnout is just 37%, but more than 80% of those who voted - 1.8 million people - vote in favour of Catalan sovereignty. Carles Puigdemont, who has replaced Mas as regional president, announces an independence referendum will be held on 1 October. Spain’s central government says it will block the referendum using all the legal and political means at its disposal. The Catalan parliament approves referendum legislation after a heated, 11-hour session that sees 52 opposition MPs walk out of the chamber in Barcelona in protest at the move. Spain’s constitutional court suspends the legislation the following day, but the Catalan government vows to press ahead with the vote. Police arrest 14 Catalan government officials suspected of organising the referendum and announce they have seized nearly 10 million ballots destined for the vote. Some 40,000 people protest against the police crackdown in Barcelona and Puigdemont accuses the Spanish government of effectively suspending regional autonomy and declaring a de facto state of emergency. Close to 900 people are injured as police attempt to stop the referendum from taking place. The Catalan government says 90% voted for independence on a turnout of 43%. Spanish government takes control of Catalonia and dissolves its parliament after secessionist Catalan MPs voted to establish an independent republic. Spanish prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, fires regional president, Carles Puigdemont, and orders regional elections to be held on 21 December.

Almost 2.3 million people voted in that referendum, resisting a campaign to put them off exercising their democratic right, designed by Spain’s interior ministry and carried out by 10,000 national police and paramilitary police sent from all over Spain to Catalonia, which led to large numbers of peaceful voters being beaten with batons and hit by rubber bullets. In spite of thousands of voters being blocked from the polls by these brutal attacks, 43% of the eligible voters still managed to vote, and in the districts where the police did not act, the participation rate was over 50%. Overall, 90% of the votes cast on 1 October were in favour of independence.

The agreement reached between Barcelona and Madrid blew up by midday on 26 October, when Puigdemont learned that the Spanish government was not going to fulfil its part of the bargain. PM Rajoy’s Popular party, supported by the nationalist radicals in the Ciudadanos party, decided to suspend Catalonia’s devolved powers regardless of whether Puigdemont called regional elections – as he had been asked to do – or not. When this became clear, Catalonia’s parliamentary majority decided to bring the parliament into session in order to implement the mandate for independence.

It is understandable that there's more than reasonable doubt about the fairness of the highly politicised Spanish courts

Therefore, on the following day, Catalonia formally declared independence – all the while still calling for negotiations with Madrid to implement this declaration. But simultaneously, Spain’s senate approved the immediate application of article 155 of the Spanish constitution in order to impose direct rule on Catalonia. This is a measure that has never been used since Spain’s post-Franco transition to democracy, not even during the worst years of Eta terrorist violence in the Basque country.

Spain’s suspension of Catalonia’s home rule was immediate and implacable, and went far beyond what is established in the Spanish constitution. At a cabinet meeting on the evening of 27 October, Rajoy’s government approved the immediate removal of the Catalan government from office – which represented the absolute majority in Catalonia’s regional parliament – substituting it with direct rule by Spain’s Popular party government, despite the fact that this party holds just 8% of the seats in Catalonia’s regional parliament.

Among other measures approved with the goal of shutting down the Catalan government’s ability to communicate with the international community – one of the obsessions of the Rajoy government – it was ordered to shut all its delegations abroad, except for the office in Brussels, where the head is being replaced. It was also ordered to close the Public Diplomacy Council of Catalonia (Diplocat), a public/private consortium made up of some 40 organisations whose purpose was to strengthen links between Catalan society and the rest of the world.

In the face of Spain’s article 155 offensive, and the insistent rumours of planned repression that could lead to much bloodshed if Catalonia’s government attempted to implement its declaration of independence, Puigdemont and his government decided to postpone these objectives, making peace and social cohesion the priority over everything else. Today all the ministers of the legitimate government of Catalonia, as well as the officials of the speakers’s office at the Catalan parliament, have been summoned to court in Madrid to answer charges of sedition, rebellion and misuse of government funds.

The bail has been set at €6 million, and they each face jail sentences of between 15 and 30 years. This is after the leaders of two of Catalonia’s main pro-independence civil society groups were sent to preventative detention in a Madrid jail to await sentencing after being similarly charged with sedition. There is irrefutable proof that the two leaders were attempting to stop the spontaneous public demonstration that occurred to protest the arrest of 15 senior Catalan government officials from deteriorating into violence, yet they were charged with fomenting unrest.

It is therefore understandable that there is a more than reasonable doubt about the fairness of the highly politicised Spanish courts. The charges launched today are eminently political, and have the objective – as openly stated by various PP party officials – to severely punish and make examples of the leaders of Catalonia’s political and civil society self-determination movement.

This is a strategy of revenge that is not only ineffective but also totally counterproductive – it merely strengthens this movement in the upcoming Catalan regional elections that the Spanish government itself called for 21 December. The pro-independence movement has agreed to participate in these elections because it will always defend the use of ballot boxes, and now it will be the ballot boxes that will defend our new Catalan republic.

• Jordi Solé and Josep-Maria Terricabras are MEPs for Green/European Free Alliance, Ramon Tremosa is an MEP for the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe