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Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, will call the Spanish Government to hold a binding referendum in Catalonia. He will do so on the 28th of September, coinciding with the vote of confidence to which he will submit in the Parliament. Puigdemont confirmed this this Sunday in a press conference before the international press. He also predicted that there will be constitutive elections in Catalonia within a year’s time, according to the pro-independence roadmap. Puigdemont also commented on Spanish Minister for Foreign Affairs’ statement comparing Catalonia’s pro-independence process “defiance” to a terrorist attack. According to the Catalan President, José Manuel García Margalló’s words were not only “inopportune” but “harmful to victims of terrorism”.

This year’s demonstration to celebrate Catalonia’s National Day on the 11^th of September will be held simultaneously in five different cities all over the territory: Barcelona, Salt, Berga, Lleida and Tarragona. Nearly 380,000 people have already registered to take part in some of these events, united under the motto ‘A punt’ (‘We are ready’). According to the organisers,Catalan National Assembly (ANC) and Òmnium Cultural, this year’s mobilisation aims to symbolise two things: that Catalonia “is ready to achieve the republic” and that the citizens have already reached “the final stage” of the pro-independence process, the presidents of both the civil society associations explained. In the different places where demonstrators are expected to gather, the same concrete action will have to be carried out at 17:14 – symbolising 1714, the year in which Catalonia was defeated by Bourbon troops and lost its institutions. 

The Catalan Government and the Catalan Parliament gathered this Saturday evening in an institutional ceremony to celebrate Catalonia’s National Day. This year, the commemoration paid tribute to major migrations and claimed Catalonia as a welcoming land throughout history. The ceremony took place for the first time at the Born Cultural Centre and not on ‘Plaça Sant Jaume’, the square where Barcelona’s Town Hall and Palau de la Generalitat, the Catalan Government headquarters, are located. Some former presidents of Catalonia, such as Artur Mas and José Montilla, also took part in the event, as did most of the political parties in the Catalan Chamber. The Conservative People’s Party (PP) andSpanish Unionist Ciutadans refused to attend.

All the political parties represented in the Catalan Parliament, except from the Conservative People’s Party (PP), Spanish Unionist ‘Ciutadans’ and radical left pro-independence CUP took part in the flower offering to Rafael Casanova’s statue and recalled the day the city fell to Bourbon troops on the 11^th of September 1714. The Catalan Government led by Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, Catalan Vice President and Catalan Minister for Economy and Tax Office, Oriol Junqueras and Catalan Minister for Foreign Affairs, Raül Romeva, began the tribute and placed flowers at the monument of Casanova. The Parliament’s President, Carme Forcadell and Barcelona’s Mayor, Ada Colau, were next to pay tribute to the Barcelona Chief Councillor, who died defending the city during a 14-month military siege over 300 years ago.

Spanish Minister for Foreign Affairs, José Manuel García Margallo, referred to Catalonia’s pro-independence process and said that he considered it “the most important defiance” that the Spanish Government has faced so far. “A crisis can end, a terrorist attack can be overcome, but Spain’s dissolution is irreversible”, he stated at a meeting of the governing People’s Party (PP) in the North of Spain. Margallo also insisted that an independent Catalonia wouldn’t be part of the EU since it wouldn’t be recognised by any international treaty and would lose “a third” of its wealth. According to Margallo, Catalonia’s independence will lead to a situation of “isolation and poverty”, he added. 

On the 11th of September, Catalonia commemorates the day when it was finally defeated by the troops of absolute king Philip V in 1714. That day Catalonia stopped being recognised as a nation and lost its self-government. Since 2012, mass demonstrations have been added to the commemoration of this historical day and have become known worldwide as rallies that measure Catalans’ feelings and political demands. This year, the Catalan National Assembly (ANC) and Òmnium Cultural, the two main civil associations behind the last pro-independence mobilisations on the 11th of September, have organised actions to take place in five different cities all over the territory: Barcelona; Salt, in Girona; Berga, in Central Catalonia; Lleida; and Tarragona. Under the motto ‘A punt’ (‘We are ready’), the demonstration aims to symbolise that Catalonia “is ready to achieve the republic”.

The Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, posthumously handed over the Gold Medal of the Government to pro-independence Muriel Casals, who died on the 14th of February this year. The prize is the highest recognition of those individuals or institutions whose work in the political, social, economic, cultural or scientific field has been outstanding. Casals presided at the head of the civil association promoting Catalan language and culture Òmnium Cultural andwas one of the main figures responsible for the massive pro-independence rallies which have taken to the streets of Barcelona for the past six years. In 2015, she joined pro-independence cross-party list 'Junts Pel Sí' and ran for the 27-S Catalan Elections. “Muriel leaves a space which will be really difficult to fill” stated Puigdemont during the ceremony held this Thursday.

Catalan exports of high-technology industrial products grew by 19.4% in the second trimester of the year in comparison to the same period in 2015. In total, these exports were worth €8 billion, according to a report published by the Catalan Institute of Statistics (Idescat). All the products in this group have increased their figures, starting with computer-related, electronic and optical products (+31.6%) and pharmaceutical products (+15.7%). Also relevant is the increase of the level of exports to the EU, which grew by 27.8% in comparison to the second trimester of 2015 and sales to the rest of the world, which registered a 12.2% increase in the second trimester of 2016 compared to the same period last year.   

The Parliament’s President, Carme Forcadell, encouraged the citizens to take part in the pro-independence mobilisation organised once again by the Catalan National Assembly (ANC) and Òmnium Cultural to celebrate Catalonia’s National Day. “This country will be what its people want to be and what they express on the streets”, she stated this Thursday. Forcadell confirmed she will attend the demonstration on the 11^th of September in Tarragona and insisted on the need to celebrate Catalonia’s National Day “in freedom”, as happens “in every country in the world”. Forcadell, who is a founder and former president of the ANC and was therefore one of the main organisers of the last years’ successful demonstrations, stated that since 2012 the Catalan society has “unequivocally” expressed its collective will. 

Barcelona El Prat Airport will be connected to Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York and Miami through direct flights operated by low-cost airline Norwegian. Thus, Barcelona will host the only direct route to San Francisco in the whole of Spain. The new connections will start working in June 2017 and from August onwards Norwegian will offer four weekly flights to New York, three to Los Angeles and San Francisco and two to Miami. In total 325,000 places will be offered in the first year, most of them, 175,000, to California. According to Norwegian’s CEO, Bjorn Kjos, the company is set to also offer other new routes from the Catalan airport. 

Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, announced this Wednesday that he will take part in the pro-independence demonstration organised by the civil society associations Catalan National Assembly (ANC) and Òmnium Cultural for the 11th of September. This year’s demonstration will be held in five different cities; Barcelona, Berga, Lleida, Salt and Tarragona. Puigdemont will attend the mobilisation in Salt, the closest city to Girona, where he was mayor between 2011 and 2016. “Politicians are the least important on that day, it is civil society which will play the most important role”, stated Puigdemont. He will be the first Catalan President to attend the pro-independence mobilisations held on Catalonia’s National Day; former President Artur Mas repeatedly refused to so while he was head of the Catalan executive.

English and Scottish experts discussed this Tuesday the obstacles that Catalonia keeps facing in deciding its political future. University of Glasgow Professor, Neil Davidson, Researcher on Catalonia and ‘The Guardian’ Blogger, Luke Stobart, and the Chair of the Scottish National Party (SNP) ‘Friends of Catalonia’, David McDonald, took part in the debate, organised by the Catalan National Assembly (ANC) in England within the framework of ‘Catalan Week’, a set of political and cultural events to explain Catalonia’s pro-independence process to the international audience. ‘Catalan Week’ in London will continue to organise activities throughout the week until Sunday, coinciding with Catalonia’s National Day celebrations in Farringdon.

The Catalan Government approved this Tuesday the creation of four new delegations abroad. One of the offices will be located in Copenhagen and is set to cover the Nordic countries: Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden and Iceland. The delegation to Poland will be based in Warsaw and the delegation in Zagreb aims to have influence in the Balkan area and in the near future in Greece, Bulgaria, Moldova and Romania. A fourth delegation is going to be opened in Geneva and focus on Switzerland, a country which has been covered by the delegation to France up to now. Although the Catalan Minister for Foreign Affairs, Raül Romeva, admitted that the pace of enhancing the Catalan delegation network “depends on the budget for 2017” he insisted that this doesn’t mean that “nothing can be done”.

The launch of the FC Barcelona office in New York will see a very special conclusion. The Empire State Building, one of the most emblematic edifices in Manhattan, will be illuminated with the Club’s colours on Wednesday. The event is a tribute to the Club and its Foundation for its alliance with UNICEF in the year of its tenth anniversary, but also as a welcome to Barça in the city in its new headquarters. Barça’s office in New York will be the first that the club will have in the United Stated. Its strategic location, at 250 Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, covers covers 250 square meters on the 20th floor in one of Manhattan's most emblematic buildings.

The Delegation of the Catalan Government in Portugal is already a reality. The new office located in Lisbon started working this Monday and aims to “increase the economic and cultural relationships” between Catalonia and Portugal, which are “historic and very fluent”. “Catalonia is willing to be, and has to be, a global actor” stated Catalan Minister for Foreign Affairs, Raül Romeva and added that “the delegations are a tool for Catalonia to have its own voice in the world”. Romeva also emphasised the need for Catalonia to be “connected” to the world and insisted on the Catalan executive’s will to “keep the dialogue” with the Spanish Government. The journalist Ramon Font has been appointed as the Head of the Delegation in Lisbon, which now becomes the eighth office of the Catalan Government abroad.