Under the slogan “We return to the streets. Independence”, thousands of people are participating in demonstrations organized by the ANC and other entities in five Catalan cities, for demand the unity of the independence partiesby abandoning the initial objectives of the ‘process‘.
This year’s September 11th examines an independence movement at its lowest point, in full division between the parties, with an ERC in crisis, a Government chaired by the socialist Salvador Illa and, for the first time since the restoration of democracy, without any sovereign advisor to the Generalitat and without an independentist majority or nationalist in Parliament.
In an attempt to counteract this situation, the ANC sought the complicity of Òmnium Cultural and other pro-sovereignty entities, with which it agreed on the Diada manifesto, after years of division also between pro-independence civil organizations.
The format of the Diada demonstration called by the ANC obtained the consensus of the entities, which approved a decentralized mobilization model, with five centers: Barcelona, Girona, Tarragona, Lleida and Tortosa. The protests began at 4:00 p.m. and will culminate with political events and speeches starting at 5:14 p.m.
In Barcelona, the march started at the Gare de Francia, a short distance from the Parliament, and will follow a short route to the Arc de Triomphe, where the president of the ANC, Lluís Llach, and the rest of the leaders of the civil independence movement will be on stage to deliver their speeches.
Each of the cities where a mobilization is called focuses its demands on a “grievance”: in Barcelona the common thread is “fair and accessible housing for all”, in Girona it is a “decent health system”, in Tarragona “quality infrastructure” is demanded, in Lleida “fair” treatment for farmers is demanded and Tortosa denounces the “mismanagement” of water.
The colours of the flags of the “estelades” mix with the green t-shirts promoted by the ANC for this edition of the Diada, in a march that in Barcelona is animated by banners with the slogans “We continue to fight for independence” and “For housing”. dignified.
Among the participants, cries of “Independence” predominate and there are a banner critical of the ERC for having invested Illa as president: “Whoever supports 155 does not deserve to be our president” says a poster accompanied by the image of Illa and, behind him, the former Catalan president Pere Aragonès. Before the demonstration, Llach stressed the desire for “unity” that is reflected in the fact that “all the pro-independence entities” have called for the Diada demonstration.
For his part, the president of Òmnium Cultural, Xavier Antich, stressed that the pro-independence demonstration is a reflection of the fact that the commitment of “civil society for a free country remains firm and intact” and encouraged “activation on all fronts, every day and from all corners of the country.”
