september 7

Institutional events on Catalonia's National Day focus on universal rights, honoring strong women such as Rosa Parks, Anna Politkóvskaia and Neus Català

Some 450,000 people and 1,800 coaches already enrolled in demonstration

Authorities unveil official poster for September 11 while ANC head promises a Diada of ‘smiles’ in run-up to October 1 referendum  

The Catalan Chamber passed on Thursday the pro-independence forces’ agreed proposal to call a vote on independence in Catalonia by September 2017. Governing cross-party list ‘Junts Pel Sí’, radical left CUP and alternative left alliance ‘Catalunya Sí que es Pot’ allowed the bill to go through. According to the bill, the referendum has to be “binding” and based on a “clear” question and a “binary” answer. In the event that ‘yes’ to independence wins, the bill foresees calling constitutive elections in March 2018. The document also establishes that “lack of agreement with the Spanish State” is not a reason for the referendum to be rejected. The Parliament also passed the ‘Catalunya Sí que es Pot proposal to hold a referendum “with real political and legal effects” and launch the necessary initiatives “before the Spanish State”. Spanish Unionist ‘Ciutadans’, the Catalan Socialist Party (PSC) and the Conservative People’s Party (PP), refused to vote, considering the proposals to have emerged from resolutions which have been suspended by the Spanish Constitutional Court (TC).

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.

Radical left pro-independence CUP announced that they will support the head of the Catalan Government in the upcoming vote of confidence that Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, will submit himself to on the 28th of September. Thus, the Government’s partner in the Parliament doesn’t see Puigdemont’s commitment to the celebration of a unilateral referendum on independence as a condition ‘sine qua non’ to renew their confidence in the President. “Hopefully on the 28th of September a referendum to be held in May or June next year will be called”, stated CUP MP Anna Gabriel this Monday, but added that “if this is not the case, CUP could support the vote of confidence and discuss how to culminate Catalonia’s political process later”. Although Gabriel didn’t consider the referendum as a red line for renewing confidence in Puigdemont, she insisted that this would be the best democratic instrument to move towards Catalonia’s independence. 

The Catalan National Assembly (ANC) and Òmnium Cultural, the two main civil organisations behind the massive pro-independence demonstrations held since 2012 on Catalonia’s National Day, have presented their project for the upcoming mobilisation on the 11^th of September. The new campaign, called ‘A punt’ (‘We are ready’), aims to mobilise Catalans in five different cities all over the territory: Barcelona; Salt, in Girona; Berga, in Central Catalonia; Lleida; and Tarragona. The presidents of both organisations invited all those who support holding a referendum on independence to join the demonstration and explained that the motto ‘A punt’ symbolises 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. 

This September 6,881 people lost their job, which raises the number of unemployed in Catalonia to 513,187. This figure represents the second month in a row with an increase in the unemployment rate, according to data published by the Spanish Ministry of Employment and Social Security. However, there are 62,625 less unemployed people than in September last year and there have been 27 consecutive months with a lower unemployment rate in comparison to 2014. The number of unemployed in the whole of Spain was 4,094,000 people.

The Catalan President asked Madrid to “pay attention to” the massive demonstration held in Barcelona and to stop being “politically short-sighted”. “Leave behind your imperial vanity, stop threatening us with the law as if we were criminals. We are normal, peaceful people”, he said to the Spanish government, in a short speech after 1.4 million people took to the streets of Barcelona in another big rally in favour of independence. Mas urged the central government to modify the law to allow a referendum because “that would not mean the end of the world”. “We have the right to be listened to, and not only that. We have the right to be helped in order to implement our democratic mandate”, he added. Addressing the Catalans that took part in the rally, he said that while they can be “influential” by taking to the streets, it’s really when they vote at the ballot box that they “decide”. Catalans are going to the polls on the 27th of September in a vote that many consider a de facto referendum on independence.