Jailed and exiled leaders call for ‘exceptional mobilization’ on National Day

The 16 jailed and exiled Catalan political and civic leaders have called for an “exceptional mobilization” on the National Day, to be held on Wednesday. 

In a rare joint letter, they say that the annual pro-independence demonstration on that day should be “the best precursor” to a likely guilty verdict for the jailed politicians and the response they expect from the institutions and civil society. 

After some months in which the unity of the pro-independence camp has proved fragile, especially among political parties, the letter calls for re-building common ground, “respecting the differences and nuances” of each actor. 

It is this unity, reads the letter, that has allowed the movement to “grow” and “go international.”

According to the 16 leaders, most of whom were cabinet members during the 2017 referendum, Catalan society “rejects repression,” in which they include the independence trial, a verdict for which is due within a month. 

“The only fair sentence is the acquittal of all the people charged by different courts and the end of all the judicial and police procedures,” they say.