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This crisis is a reminder of Europe's instability
The turn to authoritarian methods is a response to popular democratic feeling for radical change from the failed neoliberal model across Europe, writes KEVIN OVENDEN

PARAMILITARY riot police deployed by the central state. Rubber-coated bullets and percussion grenades. Over 900 injured. Blood-splattered elderly women. Ballot boxes seized and polling places stormed.

The Catalonian independence referendum last Sunday is a watershed in Europe.

The repression ordered by right-wing Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy immediately summoned up memories of the brutality of the years of the Francisco Franco dictatorship, which ended following his death in 1975 and a transition to parliamentary democracy.

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