The European Union cockroaches were quick on condemning strong leaderships running after terrorists and drug trafficking, yet mum on the daylight police brutality of the Spanish government against the legitimate exercise of political power by the Catalans.

Over the last few days, tens of thousands of Catalans have mobilized en-masse to take part in a referendum on the future of Catalonia.

Whatever your opinion on the question of Catalonian independence, there can be no doubt the response from the Spanish government has been heavy-handed and excessive.

The Spanish government claimed the referendum, which looks likely to return a resounding 'yes' vote and may well have done so by the time you read these words, is illegal.

Indeed, the government has claimed the referendum on independence violates the Spanish constitution. Now, even if one assumes that legality, is a sufficient means to measure right or wrong, illegality, or breaking the law, cannot in itself provide a justification for unprovoked physical violence.

And unprovoked violence is what was seen on the streets of Barcelona and beyond on Sunday.

Video and images of the police beating activists, and those attempting to cast a vote flooded social media as voting began in Barcelona in the early hours of Sunday morning.

I witnessed for myself police trying to control the flood of people entering one polling station in Barcelona, only to fail due to the sheer numbers of those present. A number of videos showed police entering separate polling stations and seizing ballot boxes full of votes that had been cast. Were it not for the large amounts of people occupying the polling station where I spent the afternoon, I believe the same thing would have happened there too.

And this brings us to the crux of the matter: Spain, or any other country, cannot claim for itself the status of 'a democracy,' while repressing the fundamental democratic freedoms of its people, in this case, the Catalans. Personally, the situation brings to mind the plight of the Palestinians, who are routinely attacked by the Israeli state while Israel harps on about being a democracy. Hypocrisy of the highest order.

Now, we've all the seen the images of the Spanish police beating Catalans, shutting down polling booths, and seizing ballot boxes. What I didn't see, however, and which is a stark paradox in my mind, were gatherings of neo-Nazi nationalists who were openly doing Nazi salutes in Catalonia Square being challenged with the same vigor, by the very same police who were attacking the polling booths. Why? How can this possibly make any sense?