Fascist attack against a pro-independence event in Greater Barcelona

Mataró (ACN).- The civil society organisation Súmate, which brings together Spanish-speaking Catalans who support independence from Spain, presented its local branch in Mataró, a coastal city in Greater Barcelona. On Tuesday evening, half an hour after the event’s kick off, a group of about six Fascists carrying Spanish flags interrupted the presentation and tried to stop it. They shouted insults against participants and carried banners against the association. “You are a submarine” of pro-independence parties and “You are sold to the ‘nazionalist’ tyranny” were some of the slogans. Ironically, these Fascists called the attendees of a democratic debate on Catalan nationalism ‘Nazis’. Spanish nationalism has compared Catalonia’s claims to Nazism on several occasions, while Madrid’s establishment and intellectuals have barely protested. The Fascist attack caused no injuries. After a tense discussion the intolerants left the room and the event was able to continue. The Catalan Police announced on Wednesday they are investigating the case but no arrests have been made yet. The main Catalan Parties, including the People’s Party (PP), condemned the attack. Besides, the Member of the European Parliament, Ramon Tremosa, who run for the governing Centre-Right Catalan Nationalist Coalition (CiU), announced he will take the issue to the European Commission.

Spanish nationalists trivialise Nazism

In fact, the European Commission already warned Spain about the risks of trivialising Nazism. A few days after, a group of Fascists attacked the Catalan Government’s Delegation in Madrid last September, after the massive pro-independence demonstration that gathered 1.6 million people. Furthermore, in May, the Spanish Government’s Delegate in Catalonia and member of the PP, María de los Llanos de Lluna, paid tribute to Spanish soldiers who fought in Hitler’s army.

“The Fascist attack in Mataró gives us greater strength”

On Wednesday, the day after the attack, Eduardo Reyes, President of Súmate, told the CNA that “the Fascist attack in Mataró gives us greater strength to carry on”. “This is their [idea of] democracy” he emphasised. However, “if they had the will to make everybody leave, they triggered the opposite reaction and the event lasted longer than expected”, Reyes pointed out. He also added that the radicals had finally made them “a favour”, since they show people “who are the good ones and the bad guys” that do not respect democracy.

Spanish-speaking Catalans supporting independence

Súmate has already some 15 local branches spread through Catalonia but mostly in Greater Barcelona. The association was presented last October in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, a city literally attached to Barcelona, which is Catalonia’s second largest municipality with some 250,000 inhabitants. L’Hospitalet, at the heart of Greater Barcelona, saw a spectacular population growth in the 1960 and 1970s, when it doubled its size and welcomed people from other parts of Spain to come working in Catalonia. Therefore, the city has a working-class profile, with a majority of their inhabitants having Spanish as their first mother tongue. However, in L’Hospitalet and similar Greater Barcelona cities and towns (known as Barcelona’s ‘red belt’), Catalan independence movement is increasingly gathering support.

Súmate was born as a platform for Spanish-speaking people that support Catalonia’s independence, mostly because they believe a Catalan independent state will respect diversity and will ensure better welfare. Reyes told the CNA that they will campaign for independence in the two-part question of the self-determination vote announced last week. The President of Súmate stressed they will support independence because they want Catalonia “to manage its own resources and stop being run from [Spanish] centralism”.