Microphone in hand, the organization has worked hard from the top of the stage to convince and try to make the cry of “No to amnesty” dominate. Or “Not in my name.” It has been in vain. In the demonstration that has mainly been organized by the Catalan Civil Society (SCC) in Barcelona this afternoon to oppose a possible law of penal oblivion, the proclamation “Puigdemont, to prison” has won by a landslide. On the street. The crowd’s wishes for the President of the Government have not been so drastic, but proclamations of “Sánchez traitor” or “Sánchez resignation” have been chanted. “Pedro, the dictator,” read one of the banners.
Thousands of people have attended the mobilization. The number of attendees is nowhere near what it was just six years ago, but it has most likely exceeded SCC’s own expectations. Passeig de Gràcia has been busy, but not full, and the numerous headlines set up by entities of all kinds and political parties – the banner headed by Vox has encouraged people to go against the amnesty and “Sanchez’s coup” – have drawn some empty spaces during the march.
Even so, attendance has been notable. Catalan Civil Society has assured that around 300,000 people have shown up. According to the Urban Police, 50,000. The crowd had to sing, at the initiative of the organization, “I will resist”, by the Dynamic Duo at the end of the event, after listening to El cant de la senyera and the anthems of the EU and Spain. All in response to the possible amnesty. “Good morning, resistance,” the professor and jurist specialized in Constitutional Law, Teresa Freixes, had said minutes before.
Elda Mata, president of SCC, had maintained the previous day that a massive influx at the demonstration would have led Pedro Sánchez not to endorse an amnesty. It’s her opinion. He is probably not the head of the Government, pending a negotiation, among others, with ERC and Junts, which today demand something more than amnesty if he wants to repeat as President of the Government in the next legislature. Republicans mainly demand progress in the self-determination portfolio; The post-convergents focus their efforts on the amnesty, but they have managed to take steps towards the recognition of Catalan in the European Union. So another of the protesters’ responses has been the cry of “Elections.”
Álex Ramos, vice president of SCC, addressed the Government spokesperson, Patrícia Plaja, who stated on behalf of the Catalan Executive on Tuesday that the demonstration is “Catalanphobic” and “anti-Catalanist”. “This derogatory form is totalitarian,” stressed Ramos, who in turn described as “embarrassing” the visit of Yolanda Díaz, on September 4, to Carles Puigdemont in Brussels. “With amnesty nothing is overcome, because unilaterality is maintained. Amnesty for self-determination is the first step,” he stressed before encouraging the PSOE and PP to ally. “Why do you want to make an agreement with the Catalan right of Junts and not with the Spanish right?” asked the vice president of the entity. In statements to the media, before the start of the demonstration, Mata pointed out that line and has called on state-level parties to prioritize “state pacts and respect for the rule of law.”
Be that as it may, both the organization and the political class had assumed for days that the protest demonstration this afternoon in Barcelona was not going to come close to the numbers of the one that took place just six years ago, shortly after 1-O and with a Ciudadanos in full swing. The orange formation would end up winning the Catalan elections on December 21. Today Cs is on the verge of being left without representation at all institutional levels and the current political climate is totally different from that experienced in 2017.
Another factor to take into account is that, logically, neither the PSOE nor the PSC, present in that mobilization, have not supported a protest that goes against them. The slogan “Not in my name: neither amnesty, nor self-determination” led the protest, which was attended by numerous PP cadres, along with prominent personalities from Vox.
Thus, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, president of the Popular Party, and Santiago Abascal, leader of Vox, have traveled to Barcelona, ??in addition to four regional presidents of the Popular Party: that of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso; from the Junta de Andalucía, Juanma Moreno; from the Region of Murcia, Fernando López Miras, and from Aragón, Jorge Azcón. Ignacio Garriga, general secretary of Vox, has accompanied his leader and spokesperson Pepa Millán, as well as vice presidents in autonomous governments of the far-right formation: Juan G. Gallardo (Castilla y León), Alejandro Nolasco (Aragón), Vicente Barrera (Valencian Community) and José Ángel Antelo (Murcia)
