In an environment of less political tension than last year and with the media focus placed on the constitution of the Congress in Madrid, the tribute to the victims of the attack on La Rambla on August 17, 2017 took place this Thursday with total normality , with nothing to cloud the required solemnity.
Punctually at ten in the morning, in Pla de l’Os, the place where the van of the terrorist who ran over dozens of passers-by from Plaza Catalunya stopped, the authorities, led by the President of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès; the mayor of Barcelona, ??Jaume Collboni, the president of the Parliament, Anna Erra, and the government delegate in Catalonia, Carlos Prieto, have staged a floral offering next to the monument -a plaque on the ground next to the mosaic of Joan Miró- in memory of the victims.
On this plaque, placed in 2019, there is an inscription that can be read in Spanish, Catalan, English and Arabic, and which includes the will expressed by those affected by the attack: “May peace cover you, oh city of peace. Que la pau et cobreixi, oh ciutat de pau May peace cover you, oh city of peace.
May peace cover you, city of peace.”
Before the offering, a brief text condemning that barbarism and in memory of the victims was read, and a cellist performed El cant dels ocells after a minute of silence that on this occasion was not interrupted by shouts.
Unlike what happened in the fifth, on this sixth anniversary there were hardly any attendees outside the security cordon, apart from public officials, relatives of victims and the press. However, some esteleda could be seen among the public and one person shouted “Govern espanyol assassin” before the start of the event.
After the placement of several bouquets of white carnations in various planters installed in the center of the Rambla, first by relatives of the victims and later by the authorities and representatives of the security forces, the tribute has been completed , in which there have been no parliaments of any kind.
After the event, some relatives of the victims have wanted to express their discomfort with the different administrations by reading a manifesto in which they condemn the “abandonment” of which they accuse politicians. Following this protest message, they have observed six minutes of silence for each year that has elapsed, at which time Ada Colau, mayor of Barcelona, ??could be seen crying during the tragedy.
On behalf of the victims, Robert Manrique has defended the creation of a commission of investigation in Congress on the jihadist attacks, as has been claimed again today in the negotiations for the constitution of the Board of the Chamber by the parties pro-independence supporters, and has demanded compensation for the victims, who, in his opinion, have not been properly attended to by the administration, which resorts to legal formalisms not to grant or postpone them.
For this reason, Manrique, himself a victim of the Hipercor attack in 1987, has requested a protocol for action against terrorist attacks, as well as the creation of a government office to manage care, aid and psychological support for the victims.
An hour and a half later, at 11:30 and at the beginning of La Rambla, next to Plaza Catalunya, a second event took place, organized by the Catalan Association of Victims of Terrorist Organizations (Acvot), in which representatives of the security forces, from the Mossos d’Esquadra to the Civil Guard, passing through the National Police and the Urban Guard, and political formations such as the PP, Ciudadanos and Vox, as well as the Catalan Civil Society.
After this second tribute, with a greater political background, Ignacio Garriga, from Vox, and Anna Grau, from Ciudadanos, have offered statements to the press, while the PP, which had been represented by its leader in the Barcelona City Council, Daniel Sirera, and MEP Dolors Montserrat, did not want to do so as a way of “respect for the pain of families”.
“Six years after the attacks, it is still not possible to celebrate a decent and unitary act of memory for the victims. Many of them have not seen their condition recognized due to police and political mismanagement by the Government of the Generalitat”, Grau has denounced, for whom “the deniers of those attacks”, alluding to the accusations made to the CNI of being behind the massacre, today are calling for an investigation commission in Congress and “stimulating Hispanic hatred”.
