The Catalan National Assembly has presented the political message and the route for the upcoming September 11th demonstration, on Catalonia’s National Day –la Diada– that is to take place in Barcelona.
This morning, the Catalan National Assembly presented the political message and the route for the National Day demonstration on September 11th, in which four columns of demonstrators will converge on Plaça Primer d’Octubre (October 1st Square, previously known as Plaça Espanya).
The columns will start off from four symbolic points in Barcelona: the City of Justice, the Proa school, Sants station and the Spanish Tax Agency headoffice. The starting points represent the denunciation and call for the rights and freedoms lost to Spanish colonialism, and represent the fundamental values of the future Catalan Republic: freedom, language, country and sovereignty.
Assemblea president Dolors Feliu highlighted that the demonstration will make a direct call to Europe –as expressed by the blue and yellow colours of the t-shirt– taking advantage of the Spanish presidency of the Council of the European Union that has just begun. “We want to raise our voice to convey to Europe that Catalonia is an unrecognized and repressed nation oppressed by the Spanish state. We fight in peace, with democratic instruments, demanding respect for our fundamental rights and the international treaties to exercise our right to self-determination and independence, to be able to make our decisions freely.”
This year’s slogan “Via Fora” (Gung Ho!) is a medieval cry that was used as a call to arms to fight for freedom. “Now, it must also serve us as a call to mobilize, to fight with democratic weapons, which are our strength”, remarked Ms Feliu.
Several Catalan civil society organisations took part in the press conference, including Òmnium Cultural and the Council for the Republic, among others.
Assemblea’s Political Incidence Coordinator, Josep Lluís Rodríguez, stressed the importance of civil society in Catalonia’s struggle: “We want this Diada to be the starting point for the mobilization and networking that has developed from the National Pact of the Civil Movement for Independence”, that came to life after Assemblea’s National Conference last March.
The September 11th demonstration reiterates Catalonia’s commitment to achieving independence and the defence of its fundamental values. It also urges Europe to recognise this determination and demands more political responsibility. Europe must stop treating the Catalan issue as a Spanish “internal matter” and take a clear stand in the face of the political, judicial and linguistic repression by the Spanish state. It is time to move from empty words to action and confrontation, to achieve independence.
After the failure of dialogue with Spain, it is necessary for citizens to take the reins.
Via Fora! Everyone in the streets to defend our freedoms and the independence of Catalonia!