Large delegation of ERC in Madrid to support party head

A large delegation of pro-independence Esquerra Republicana (ERC) party was on Thursday morning outside the Supreme Court, in Madrid, in order to support their party head, Oriol Junqueras, who is expected to be the first defendant to testify in the independence trial later on in the morning.

The delegation was led by ERC's deputy president, Pere Aragonès, and the parliament speaker, Roger Torrent.

Several Catalan ministers joined the delegation, including the agriculture one, Teresa Jordà and that of Minister of labor, social affairs and family, Chakir El Homrani.

Catalan vice president: Supreme Court will "never decide the future of Catalonia" 

Aragonès, also the current Catalan vice president - the very post previously held by Junqueras - spoke after the photo was taken, and reaffirmed the party commitment to "the ideals of freedom and justice."

"Only the people of Catalonia will decide the future of Catalonia," said Aragonès, "never the Supreme Court." "The future of a society is decided democratically by its citizens, not by a court that, as we know, already has the verdict written beforehand," he concluded.

Parliament speaker: "today is a historic day"

"We're not in a normalized situation," Roger Torrent said to the press some minutes before the photo, adding that "the first thing to do is to free [the prisoners]."

The speaker also affirmed: "As much as they sentence us, us Catalans will never stop thinking what we think. Today is a historic day, and what Junqueras says today will be seen in the history books of the future."