palau de la generalitat

More traditional nativity scenes can be seen at the Frederic Marès Museum and Pedralbes Monastery

Seven months after suspension of self-government, Catalonia has an executive once more

Carles Puigdemont took office this Tuesday and became Catalan President number 130. “We will respond to the people’s hopes” stated Puigdemont during his speech and added that it is “not possible to guarantee” a better life for all citizens “with the skills we currently have, with the skills we have been left”. The Parliament’s President, Carme Forcadell, representatives from all the groups in the Catalan chamber and personalities from civil society attended the ceremony. Current Spanish Minister for Home Affairs, Jorge Fernández Díaz, and the Spanish Government’s Delegate in Catalonia, María de los Llanos de Luna, were the only representatives from the Spanish government to attend the event.  

Catalonia’s National Day, on the 11th of September, commemorates the day on which Catalonia was finally defeated and lost its sovereignty to the absolute king Felip V, more than 300 years ago. This year the institutional ceremony focused on two pillars: the 100^th anniversary of the Catalonia’s Library Network and the 750^th birthday of Ramon Muntaner, one of the first and most iconic chroniclers in Catalonia’s history. The institutional events are normally held on the night before the 11th of September but this year the celebration was brought forward to avoid its coincidence with the electoral campaign, which kicks off on the 10th of September at midnight. The Catalan Parliament’s President, Núria de Gispert, stated that lately Catalonia’s National Day commemorations haven’t a “feeling of defeat but one of hope for the future”.