WARNING: If you are a Catalan scientist living in Catalonia, please do NOT sign this petition, since its goal is to gather the supports to Catalonia from foreign scientists.

INTRODUCTION.
Catalonia was one of the fiercest regions in Spain who fought the Franco dictatorship. As a consequence, the regime prohibited the use of the Catalan language, cut all forms of autonomy of the region and killed several of its representatives. After that period, Spain tried to slowly go back to democracy, and in 1978 a constitution was set up. This constitution however does not recognize any possibility of disagreement or separation. In 2006, Spain led by the Socialist government of Zapatero, signed a fundamental agreement with Catalonia that gave to that region a status of autonomy similar to provinces in Canada, states in USA, or Scotland in the UK. But in 2010, the right-wing Popular Party of current PM Mariano Rajoy did a campaign across Spain and brought the case to the Supreme Court in order to severely cut the treaty. Since that moment, Catalonia tried by all means to play fair and offered several times to renegotiate parts of that treaty with Madrid, with no success. The central government led Mr. Rajoy, during the referendum in October 2017, to the use of a disproportionate violence by the riot police that was recruited from all regions of Spain except Catalonia. Please see https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statut_d'autonomie... or the equivalent English version in Wikipedia.
PETITION.
1) We DEPLORE the excessive violence and brutality used by the central government of Spain against its own peaceful citizens during the day of the referendum in Catalonia. This violence is incompatible with the UN Declaration of Human rights.
2) We ASK that Mr. Rajoy's government agree with a negotiation, as in any advanced democratic country, instead of pushing forward its agenda of isolation that would only enact the article 155 of the constitution and would therefore have de facto the effect of getting Catalonia back to what it was during Franco’s dictatorship.