it can't be democratic to use the Spanish Army and the Guardia Civil(yes-Franco's Guardia Civil, a police force that was preserved for no good reason in the post-Franco "constitution" that was imposed by the Francoists in exchange for allowing nominal elections)to stop a referendum through voter intimidation. What Rajoy did can't be called anything but fascist.
I'm neutral on independence-and btw, nobody with anything close to progressive or secular political views in "Spanish civil society" supports the ultra-centralism of the Rajoy's Falange-sorry, but with this action, the "Popular Party" has proved it never stopped being Francoist at all-but there was nothing that was happening that justifies Rajoy's actions here.
The Spanish Right has never been about democracy. If it was democratic, it would never have launched a military coup against the elected Spanish government in the Thirties, and it would never have imposed a Castellano-supremacist policy on language and culture).
And what you don't seem to realize is that, as the senseless execution of the Easter Rising leaders created a massive consensus for independence in Ireland that did not previously exist, Rajoy's Falangist brutality has created a massive increase in support for either independence or some sort of radical-autonomist alternative to the status quo.