Catalan President asks Madrid "to sit down and talk" after the 3rd massive pro-independence rally

Barcelona (ACN).- "Madrid, but also Brussels" should take note that "these people wants to vote", stated the President of the Catalan Government, Artur Mas, after the massive pro-independence demonstration, which gathered 1.8 million people according to the local police. Mas met with the civil society associations organising the rally after the event and "congratulated" them. "There is barely any other country or society throughout the world that has this mobilisation level" and can send such a "powerful message" in such a peaceful and festive way. According to Mas, the demonstration was "a great sample of civic-mindedness, tolerance, good manners and smiles". "I am the 129^th President of the Catalan Government, but a country is not only its institutions and history; a country is mostly its people" and "I feel very proud today of being the president of such a country". In addition, Mas agreed with the organisers that the "unity" among those supporting self-determination "is fundamental". "I commit myself to do whatever is possible, whatever is needed" to guarantee such a unity. "I am fully engaged in making sure people can vote", he concluded.

The demonstration organisers: "President, put out the ballot boxes"

During the demonstration, the organisers asked the Catalan "Parliament, Government, President, put out the ballot boxes", as was said by Carme Forcadell, President of the grassroots association Catalan National Assembly (ANC). Forcadell also asked the politicians "to be worthy of the people who have voted for them". She also asked the parties supporting self-determination "to abandon partisan" fights and form "a solid and unbreakable unity", in order to make sure that Catalans will be able to vote on the 9^th of November. Referring to the Catalan authorities, Forcadell stated: "If they do not let us down, we will not let them down". The ANC President committed to launch a broad campaign to increase the "yes" support, "which will reach all the homes in the country". "Independence is not proclaimed from a balcony but through ballot boxes" and "we will vote on the 9^th of November and we will win", she stressed. "We have not reached this point to step back and give up. We will go until the end and we will win", she concluded.

Muriel Casals, President of Òmnium Cultural, which also organised the rally, also addressed the demonstration attendees from the stage. She said that Catalonia has "the strength of its people united", a unity that should be kept "among the institutions and political parties". Casals said that Catalonia "has stopped being a people that remembers military defeats but has become a society that builds a victory in a peaceful way". She also stressed that "everything is being done massively, in a civic-minded and festive way". "The voice of a people that expresses itself though the ballot boxes is on top of a partisan court based in Madrid [referring to the Constitutional Court]" concluded Casals. Josep Maria Vila d'Abadal, president of the Association of Municipalities for Independence, promised that the town halls will vote on declarations supporting the process once the Catalan Parliament has approved the Law on Consultation Votes and the Catalan President calls for the referendum.