As Catalans Voted, ‘Dying With Fear’ at High School Turned Polling Place
1, 2017
BARCELONA, Spain — At some point on Sunday afternoon, as riot police officers forced their way into
polling places all over the city, the Moisès Broggi high school in Barcelona became a fortress.
But many more remained open — Catalan officials said 2315 stations were ready for the vote —
and within them, volunteers and organizers tried to protect the ballot boxes, sometimes using diversionary tactics.
Mr. Mari said that They seem like medieval warriors — the helmet, the shield,
All day, at the Institut Moisès Broggi, an arts and technology magnet school, people watched video of raids carried
out nearby, in which officers smashed through glass doors with axes and dragged women downstairs by the hair.
At 5:57 a.m., an anonymous-looking young man in a black hooded sweatshirt slipped into the Moisès Broggi school building, and word got out
that he had brought the ballot boxes, which had been hidden overnight.
But the school stayed open, and by noon the line of voters wrapped around three sides of a city block, applauding people as they left.