The catalonian government, which is an autonomous community of Spain, held a referendum to secede. The Spanish shut down polling stations, but they declared independence anyways, so the central government implemented direct rule and arrested the separatist politicians responsible for it.

So what you're saying is, when I post that Catalonia should be free and go on holiday in Spain, no spooks would follow me around, and no pressure would be put on German companies to fire me, and this isn't even remotely comparable.

7 elected politicians and 2 leaders of the independence movement have been arrested and convicted for the ‘crime’ of holding a referendum. Up to 13 years in prison.

Yes, I know, that's still shifting goal posts from

> "being put in jail because you say publicly that tibet should be free"

and if merely pointing that fact out is getting me downvoted, that's the problem of the people who are doing that.

They spent public money on the referendum, didn't they? If the subordinate government could do whatever they wanted, they wouldn't need a referendum, would they.

They jailed Catalan politicians and activists after winning a referendum for the independence of Catalonia: https://catalansalmon.com/campanyes/llibertat/?cvid=2

From what I was able to get from talking to people from Barcelona, anti-independence citizens were viewing the referendum as illegal and didn't attend. So it's no wonder that the separatists "won" the referendum, but it's legitimacy is rather questionable.