The variety of the speeches after the floral offering at the monument to Rafel de Casanovas have shown a slight reflection of the call for the pacification of Catalan politics, which is excessively tense due to the friction between the different pro-independence factions.
The president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, has expressed his desire that, in the celebration of the National Day of Catalonia, the citizenry “expresses itself with all its plurality and convictions” and that “claims be clearly focused” in favor of a referendum for self-determination. After leading the first floral offering by the Catalan executive, Aragonès addressed the media to encourage the public to make it “a day of vindication, of being proud of the nation that we are, a diverse, plural, but determined nation to decide with absolute freedom their future”.
“What I want is that citizens express themselves with all their plurality, with all their convictions and that we clearly focus the demands of this Diada in favor of the right of Catalonia to freely choose its future”, he asserted, in a speech without questions from journalists.
The president, who has not made direct reference to his absence at the pro-independence demonstration of the Catalan National Assembly this afternoon in Barcelona, ??has shown himself “absolutely convinced and committed” that Catalonia “will vote for its future again”. “And we will do it based on the strength we have,” he warned.
For this reason, he has considered that today is “a day to accumulate this force, advance in the resolution of the conflict with the State and leave in the hands of the citizens the decision on their collective future in a referendum”.
The deputy secretary general and spokesperson for the ERC, Marta Vilalta, has called for “leaving reproaches” and “not being confused with an adversary” in the celebration of the Diada, in which she has made it clear that the Republicans will not give up the table of dialogue as a way to achieve independence.
After last night, in the Fossar de les Moreres, an emblematic location for the independence movement in the celebration of the Diada, ERC leaders -including Vilalta- were booed and rebuked at the cry of “botiflers” by some of the attendees, the Republicans They have also been whistled at in the floral offering by several dozen independentistas who gathered outside the perimeter.
The ERC spokeswoman has asked to “add and continue to be more”, something that goes through defending the “plurality, transversality and diversity of the independence movement”, precisely in a week in which Esquerra has been the focus of criticism within the independence movement due to the absence of the leadership of the party and the president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, at the ANC demonstration this afternoon in Barcelona.
In this sense, he suggested that “we should not confuse ourselves with an adversary: ??we have it before us, it is the State and it is with whom we are confronting and discussing ideas to make this Catalan republic possible”. Vilalta has insisted on claiming from the pro-independence “fellow travelers” that the “reproaches” must be put aside and “join in the transversality”.
Asked about the boos received both last night and today, the Republican leader has said “respect freedom of expression so that everyone can express themselves with timely criticism”, but has “regretted” that “this is not the path to victory” .
And he has made it clear that ERC will defend the sum and consensus, “shared struggles” and “transversality”, as well as “not giving up any space where it is possible to defend these consensuses, both in institutions, as well as in the streets or political negotiating tables”.
The president of JxCat, Laura Borràs, has made a call this Sunday, on the occasion of the Diada de Catalunya, for “mobilization” in the street until 1-O, on its fifth anniversary: ??”It is a day of vindication and also of hope”.
He said it in statements to the press after the floral offering to the Rafael Casanova monument on the occasion of the Diada, in which the JxCat delegation headed and in which its general secretary, Jordi Turull, its spokesman, Josep Rius, the vice-president of the Government, Jordi Puigneró, and the president of the parliamentary group, Albert Batet.
“We have to be mobilized in the street, from now until 1-O, because October 1 will mark five years of the most important act of self-determination that we have experienced in Europe. We will only win our freedom if we are capable of defending it”, has indicated the also suspended president of Parliament.
For his part, the spokesman for Demòcrates de Catalunya, Antoni Castellà, has asked the president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, to “put the sense of the State, the sense of the institution, above the party”, because “it is more important country than a political party” and attend the ANC rally. “As long as the situation is not normal, as long as there is repression and the result of the yes to independence on 1-O is not recognized, we will always be on the streets,” he emphasized.
The first secretary of the PSC, Salvador Illa, stated this Sunday that he hopes the Diada will be one of “respect” and allow “plurality to be manifested”, promote “good coexistence”, and has reminded the president of the Generalitat that citizens They “already vote” habitually in elections.
Illa added that the citizens of Catalonia “have been voting” for years in elections and “will continue to vote”, alluding to the words of the president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, that Catalonia “will vote again” in a referendum of self determination.
For Illa, Catalonia “needs a Government that, instead of fighting, governs”: “What suits us is to govern”. The leader of the Catalan Socialists has added that he would like the Diada to show “the character of Catalan society as welcoming”.
The president of UP and En Comú Podem, Jaume Asens, has asked to “end the judicialization” of the process. “That there is no politician threatened with jail and that this is the last Day with political leaders who cannot return home,” he said.
Asens has also called for “more tangible advances in the dialogue table” and an “anti-repressive consensus of Catalanism that goes from the PSC to the CUP and that allows to put an end to an obsolete crime such as sedition.”
The commons also appealed to “recover consensus.” “Today is a day to commemorate the will of the majority of those of us who live in Catalonia, to preserve our language, our institutions and the legacy of the struggles for the defense of freedom”, concluded Asens.
The PDeCAT, the Nationalist Party of Catalonia (PNC) and Convergents have jointly made the floral offering to the Rafael Casanova monument in Barcelona on the occasion of the Diada, in which it has been the first gesture of “reunion” between these three formations that emerged from the space of the old Convergència.
On behalf of PDeCAT, its president, David Bonvehí, and its organizing secretary, Genís Boadella, participated, while on behalf of the PNC, its general secretary, Marta Pascal -former coordinator of PDeCAT-, and on behalf of Convergents, she did her own president, Germà Gordó.
In declarations to the press, the spokespersons of the three formations have agreed on the need to articulate this space of a sovereignist center and that they are willing to work on the “recovery” of this space.
Boadella has pointed out that “reunions exist” and that the bases are being laid for the political space to be reborn, while Pascal has indicated that the path to putting together the political project for the municipal elections is beginning. “We are willing to work for the recovery of this center space that should never have been lost”, added Germà Gordó.
The mayor of Barcelona, ??Ada Colau, lamented this Sunday that the political course in Catalonia has started “too much of a market due to the fights between the parties of the Government” and has demanded from the Catalan Executive an “emergency plan” to deal with inflation and the energy crisis.
Faced with a new political course that is seen as “complicated”, due to the end of the pandemic, inflation, the energy crisis and the complex geopolitical situation, the mayor has urged the Government to take measures and deal with the “crisis”.
“My job as mayor is to ask the Generalitat what the shock plan is to deal with this crisis. I ask for an emergency plan for families who today suffer to make ends meet despite having a job,” Colau emphasized. .
The president of the municipal group of the PP in the Barcelona City Council, Josep Bou, has carried out a floral offering on behalf of the Popular Party at the Rafael Casanova monument, on the Diada de Catalunya, amid boos and whistles from demonstrators who gathered outside the perimeter.
“As every year I have come to vindicate the martyr figure of Rafael Casanova, who fought and suffered a lot in defense of the monarchy. He was not a separatist or a nationalist, he was a Spanish Catalan like I am,” said Bou, who has gone on to say that, had he lived at that time, he himself “would have been an Austrianist”.
That is why he has shown his incomprehension for the boos received during the offering by pro-independence demonstrators: “I don’t understand why they whistle at the PP, because we have more reason than anyone else to defend this man”, alluding to Casanova.
On the other hand, Bou has defended that the Diada stop being celebrated on September 11 and start to be commemorated on April 23, the day of Sant Jordi, patron saint of Catalonia and festival of the rose and the book in this community.
The president of the ANC, Dolors Feliu, has urged the citizens of Catalonia to attend the Diada demonstration “if what they want is independence”. “It is the strength of the people that will move us towards independence,” Feliu warned, stressing that with the protest they want “parties and the government” to feel the “force of the mobilization.”
For his part, the president of Òmnium, Xavier Antich, has assured that the best tool to respond to the “dirty war” in Spain is to “demonstrate in the streets” the great mobilizing force” of the “democratic and plural movement that is the independence movement “. “It is the most powerful tool to convey our voice,” he remarked.
On behalf of the Consell per la República, the spokesman for Poble Lliure, Guillem Fuster, has defended that what began in 2017 “is not finished” and that any “completion” passes “only through democratic confrontation” and “structures” of condition.
The president of Barcelona, ??Joan Laporta, recalled this Sunday that Barça “has always positioned itself in favor of promoting and defending the rights and freedoms of Catalonia” and that it will continue to do so.
Laporta has pointed out that Barça “is a club with deeply democratic roots” and was the first sports institution to make an offering to Casanova’s monument.
“In all episodes, Barça has positioned itself in favor of promoting and defending the rights and freedoms of Catalonia. We will continue to do so, faithful to our history and founding essences,” Laporta said.
