The demonstration of the Diada de l’Onze de Setembre, called under the motto ‘Via Fora!’ by the Catalan National Assembly (ANC), has brought together some 115,000 people, according to the Guàrdia Urbana’s accounts, the lowest number – discounting the years of the pandemic – since 2012, when the cycle of independence demonstrations began. However, the organization raises the figure to 800,000 people.
The announced presence of the president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, at the demonstration lasted just over an hour after a group of demonstrators shouted against the Government and slogans such as “Puigdemont our president”. Simultaneously, a large group that accompanied the Republicans shouted independence. Aragonés who, with a good part of the Government and a delegation of ERC, has joined the column of the language that came from the neighborhood of La Bordeta halfway through has left the march aided by the Mossos d’Esquadra before reaching Plaza España .
The march started at 5:14 p.m. from four points in Barcelona: the Ciutat de la Justícia, the Escola Proa, the Sants Station and the Treasury building. A little over an hour later, these columns have come together in the Plaza de Espanya where the political act has begun with musical performances and parliaments.
“We are here to remind the State that nothing has been finished nor will it be finished until we achieve independence,” the president of the ANC, Dolors Feliu, began her speech, who has demanded that the Parliament make the 1-O mandate effective and has Conditioning any negotiation in Madrid to have direct effects on the achievement of independence. Anything else – she has pointed out – is to launder the Spanish State. “Independence or elections”, Feliu concluded between shouts of “Govern, resign”.
The former singer-songwriter and former deputy Lluís Llach, representative of the Consell de la República, has made a very vehement appeal to the unity of the independence movement to confront the Spanish State and build the Catalan republic from the 1-O mandate that he has claimed.
The president of Òmnium, Xavier Antich, has also called for unity among the pro-independence forces and has highlighted that cohesion is what scares the State, after remembering that his entity has been working on the amnesty for a long time.
Each column represents, according to the organizers, enclaves “of denunciation and vindication of the rights and freedoms lost by Spanish colonialism”. Thus, the column that has left the City of Justice serves to claim freedom from the judicial system; that of Escola Proa, in the Bordeta neighborhood, language and culture before the attacks that Catalan suffers; the Sants station, the Catalan Països, and the Plaza Letamendi (headquarters of the Hacienda), the fiscal sovereignty against the fiscal deficit.
Upon reaching the Plaza España, the banners of the four headers have been turned around to create a new motto: 11S Per la independència Via Fora!
Many of the protesters are wearing t-shirts designed by the ANC for the occasion, in navy blue and gold, the same color as the banners that carry the four heads, the colors of the European flag, with which the organizers want to influence the willingness to continue being part of the European institutions at a time when Spain holds the rotating presidency of the European Council.
The stelades are the predominant symbols in the marches while the yellow ribbons have practically disappeared.
Unlike in 2022, the president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, and practically the entire Government attended the demonstration, considering that this year the scenario “is different” and is focused on “directing pressure towards the State Government” in instead of the Catalan institutions and parties. The Catalan Executive has been integrated into the language column just like a large representation of ERC in which, however, its president, Oriol Junqueras, is not present, who has tested positive for covid and has decided not to attend the events of the Diada “for social responsibility”.
The pro-independence demonstration, in which Omnium Cultural, the Council of the Republic and the Association of Municipalities for Independence (AMI) also participate, is marked by the possible investiture of Pedro Sánchez and the eventual amnesty law that could allow an agreement in this sense, given that the independence parties, in particular JuntsxCat, hold the key to Spain’s governance.
In fact, during the different events that took place in the morning on the occasion of the Diada, the investiture and the amnesty have been omnipresent. Thus, in the floral offering to Rafael Casanova, the general secretary of Junts, Jordi Turull, has claimed unilaterality and has defended the payment of the amnesty “in advance” given the possibility of reaching an agreement, with darts at Esquerra. For their part, ERC and the Government see their strategy supported by dialogue and negotiation and have insisted on asking Junts for coordination in this negotiation.
A request to which Òmnium Cultural has joined, which sees an “unparalleled opportunity to achieve amnesty and address self-determination once and for all. For Xavier Antich, president of the entity, it is essential that ERC and Junts coordinate, above all all for a first phase: that of the amnesty that “at least” should apply to 1,432 people: 113 criminally convicted, 17 pending sentencing, 387 with an open criminal case, 880 administratively sanctioned and 35 pending before the Court of Auditors, and among them The former president of the Parliament and president of Junts, Laura Borràs, is not there.
The president of the Catalan National Assembly (ANC), Dolors Feliu, has been more belligerent, who has demanded that ERC and JxCat not support any investiture “if it is not clearly to achieve independence”: “We are not afraid of the blockade,” Feliu stressed after making the traditional floral offering to the Rafael Casanova monument on the occasion of the September 11th Day.
