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Representatives from several pro-independence civil society organisations joined Parliament President, Carme Forcadell, on her way to the Court. Forcadell testified this Friday for having allowed a democratic debate on Catalonia’s independence in the Catalan Chamber on the 27th of July. Pro-independence grass-roots organisations the Catalan National Assembly (ANC), Òmnium Cultural, the Association of Municipalities for Independence (AMI) and the Catalan Association of Municipalities (ACM) highlighted the wide support for the representative. Indeed, the President of AMI, Neus Lloveras, said that the backing for Forcadell was a “demonstration of the unity and strength” of the pro-independence movement in Catalonia. The president of the ANC, Jordi Sànchez, deemed Forcadell’s prosecution “absolutely unjustified” and the president of Òmnium, Jordi Cuixart, said Catalonia is facing “a critical hour” and has to show “unity and firmness”.

The Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, has summoned the members of the National Alliance for the Right to Self-Determination to meet on the 23^rd of December to start organising the referendum on independence. The summit, in compliance with the resolutions adopted at the general policy debate in October, will be chaired by Puigdemont and the President of the Parliament, Carme Forcadell. As sources close to the presidency have told the Catalan News Agency, the meeting will be held in the Parliament just after it has given green light to the 2017 budget. The aim of the meeting is to find political and social consensus around the organisation of the referendum to be held next September 2017. According to the Spanish Government spokesman, Iñigo Méndez de Vigo, the meeting is a “symptom of unilateralism”, resulting from requests from “the radicals of the CUP”.

The laws for “disconnecting” Catalonia from Spain will not become effective unless the ‘Yes’ to independence wins the 2017 referendum. The spokesman of radical left pro-independence CUP’s national secretariat, Quim Arrufat, said in an interview with the Catalan News Agency that “no step forward will be made unless it is supported through the ballot boxes”. According to Arrufat, all the disconnection laws (the Legal Transition, the Catalan Tax Office and the Social Security System regulations) will have a clause that will impede them from entering into force if the ‘No’ to independence achieves a majority in the referendum. The politician focused on the legal transition law, which foresees the process for the Autonomous Community of Catalonia to become an independent state. He specified that the regulation will be applied in two steps, as part of the law will have to become effective before the referendum in order to call it even if the Spanish Government blocks it. The other clauses would only come into force in case of a pro-independence majority in the referendum.

The Catalan railway network has 126 “black spots” (14.3% of which are in in Tarragona, southern Catalonia), which represent “significant delays for traffic and a risk to safety”, reported the rail national secretary of the union UGT-Catalonia, José Bravo, to the Catalan News Agency. With this in mind, the workers in Tarragona of Adif, the Spanish public body in charge of the railway infrastructure, reported this Tuesday to the European Parliament “the lack of investment and personnel” of the company, which threatens a “strategic sector” and impedes providing a “safe and quality” service in Catalonia. “We share the annoyance of the Catalan Government regarding the Spanish Government’s breaches of its commitments”, said Bravo, who added that the Spanish Government of the Conservative People’s Party (PP) has only executed 4,2% of the 2013 agreement to invest €306 million in Catalonia, the “minimum spending necessary to provide a secure service”.

Picasso’s attraction to Romanesque art is to be definitively unveiled in an exhibition dedicated to him at the National Art Museum of Catalonia (MNAC). The display will open its doors next Thursday and is co-organised with the Musée National Picasso-Paris. The exhibition includes forty works by the artist lent by the French museum, which are being added to the collection of Romanesque art from the MNAC. According to one of the exhibition’s curators, Emilia Philippot, the display demonstrates the “echoes of simplicity and primitivism” of Romanesque art in certain Picasso creations. Picasso, like other artists of his time, was attracted by the Romanesque, identified with the “childhood of art”. His interest is proved in the exhibition with various unpublished documents, such as correspondence and books belonging to the artist.

Administrative Court Number 14 of Barcelona has prohibited Badalona City Hall from opening any municipal offices on Spain’s National Day, this Wednesday the 12^th of October. The municipal government of Badalona announced earlier this week that it would offer their workers the possibility of working during the festivity in exchange for another free day, the 9^th of December, coinciding with the Immaculada long weekend. This measure would have allowed the opening of offices providing services to citizens, with a skeleton staff of at least 50%, but the judge believes there are political intentions behind the municipal government decision to turn the 12-O into a voluntarily holiday and that these would harm "the general, social and collective interest" of the celebration, as well as the "ideological freedom" of workers. Parallel to the rise of Catalan national sentiment, the 12^th of October is regarded in Catalonia as a day used by extreme-right forces to claim the union of the country and fight independence. 

The National Council for Human Rights, the Moroccan agency responsible for accrediting international observers, has invited the Public Diplomacy Council of Catalonia (Diplocat) to join the almost one hundred observers monitoring the elections taking place in Morocco this Friday 9^th of October. Diplocat has send a mission of 12 people that have received training in the field of international observation ad have followed the election campaign and the preparation for this day. The general secretary of Diplocat, Albert Royo, believes that this mission Catalonia has sent is relevant because it "makes Catalonia visible as an international committed, serious and responsible actor, in a natural space of action as is the Mediterranean area". The election observation mission will present an assessment report publicly after the election.

Barcelona; Salt, next to Girona; Berga, in Central Catalonia; Lleida in the West; and Tarragona in the South beat this Sunday afternoon all at once to demand Catalonia’s Independence. At 17:14 (5.14 pm CET) all the demonstrators lifted a yellow card in the shape of a circle symbolising a heartbeat and responded to the motto ‘Go ahead, Catalan Republic’. According to local police up to 900,000 people took part in the five rallies. Among the demonstrators was the Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, who didn’t follow the path of the former president, Artur Mas, and chose to participate in the rally held in Salt. 

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.

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 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. 

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.