Yet more police pressure on Catalonia is the Spanish government’s response to the Catalan president’s pledge to go ahead with the referendum in the face of raids and arrests this week. The Spanish Home Affairs minister informed his Catalan counterpart in a letter that the reinforcements “will act in the hypothetical event that the call to an illegal referendum stands.” The letter also says that the arrival of extra officers is in response to the demonstrations in Barcelona.

In fact, the Spanish cabinet spokesperson described the protests as “riotous” and added that the judges and courts in Catalonia are under “siege”. Thousands of protesters have demonstrated outside Catalonia’s High Court and Barcelona’s City of Justice in the past few hours. The spokesperson also branded the “contingency plans” for the referendum announced by the Catalan president as “fantasy.”