Catalanism turns the Diada into a cry against the extreme right

BarcelonaAll Catalanist parties, from the PSC to the CUP, have conspired this Diada to be a dam against the far-right, accepting that Catalonia has definitely settled into a new political paradigm. A scenario that is not new in Europe and which demoscopy in our country has been predicting for months. For this reason, the political messages of this September 11th have had a common denominator: to call on citizens to reject all the messages of hatred propagated by the far-right and to uphold the democratic values of that "One single people" that political Catalanism has always claimed. However, the polls reflect a distance between what the traditional parties proclaim and what the citizens are willing to vote for – a poll by El Mundo this Friday once again places Aliança Catalana as the second force–. In fact, the growth of Sílvia Orriols' party strains an independence movement that this September 11th has returned to the streets and has timidly broken a trend of demobilization that it has been dragging along at least since 2023.

The independence movement is looking for a catalyst to help it reactivate the movement. So far it has not found one –although the assault on a Barça member who was carrying an estelada in Elche revived the movement for a few days–, but this September 11th it has managed to bring more people out to the streets than last year: a total of 58,000 people mobilized between Barcelona, Girona, and Amposta, according to local police, 16,000 more than in 2025. The ANC has estimated the mobilization throughout Catalonia at 128,000 people. Beyond the dance of numbers, the Assembly, and also Òmnium, have tried to instill optimism in the movement and have set a date to try to create a "turning point" that serves for "a new push for independence": a massive mobilization in the autumn of next year, when it will be 10 years since October 1st. "We consider the mourning period over," declared the president of the ANC, Josep Vila.

The entities are directing the message to civil society, aware that the disunity of the pro-independence parties remains. And as long as Aliança –to whom the ANC has avoided referring– continues to grow in the polls, pro-independence unity will be almost an impossible milestone. The proof is that some of the young people consulted by the ARA who have come to this Diada demonstration have done so to stand up to Sílvia Orriols' party. The deputy and also mayor of Ripoll, however, avoids the label of far-right and, in statements to TV3, has defined herself as a "Catalan nationalist". In fact, she censures the cordon sanitaire of the other pro-independence formations. However, she has been normalizing xenophobic discourse for some time, and today it has even gotten out of hand: the Ripoll City Council has had to distance itself from the gloss of the Diada given by Ramon Cotarelo —who was also at the Barcelona demonstration near the Aliança delegation—, who has called for war against Islam.

The racist proclamations of Aliança –which sent a party delegation to the Barcelona demonstration and Orriols left escorted by the Mossos– are censured by the rest of the pro-independence parties. The clashes at the Fossar de les Moreres on Thursday, when hundreds of people linked to the pro-independence left tried to boycott the Aliança event –it ended with police charges and arrests–, marked the eve of the Diada. The Junts secretary general, Jordi Turull, has specifically asked to avoid turning the revolution of the "smiles" into that of "hatred". The party of Carles Puigdemont, which is the one that has the most voter flight to Aliança, trusts that the return of the former president and leader of the party could be a turning point for the pro-independence movement. However, ERC also sees how Orriols is hot on its heels and in some polls, such as that of this Friday by El Mundo, it is already taking the second position. For this reason, Oriol Junqueras has rejected steering Catalonia towards an "ever smaller and more isolated bunker". Precisely, the president of ERC has decided to return to the ANC demonstration after five years of being absent.

The Catalanist consensus

Although the message against Aliança from Junts and ERC goes in unison, the truth is that their strategies still do not meet. The proof is the new financing model, which the republicans have agreed upon with the socialists and which the juntaires for the moment reject because they consider it insufficient. Even so, this Diada, republicans and juntaires have also met in their criticisms of Salvador Illa's government, with whom they have only shared a common front against the extreme right. The PP has long since left this consensus, and this Friday it has once again been absent from all the September 11th acts. In the case of Vox, it has taken advantage of the Diada to announce that next Friday Santiago Abascal will hold an event in Catalonia.

The institutional speeches have had an almost unitary message against the extreme right. Both the Government spokesperson, Sílvia Paneque –as the President of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, also did on Thursday in his institutional message–, and the President of the Parliament, Josep Rull, have claimed Catalonia as a land of welcome and have rejected any kind of discourse of fear. In fact, this year the Government has wanted to take advantage of the 50th anniversary of the September 11th act in Sant Boi in 1976 to grasp those values of defense of democracy. To the calls made by political and institutional leaders, the one from former president Jordi Pujol has also been added, who, in a message broadcast by Catalunya Ràdio, has once again claimed that anyone who lives, works in Catalonia and wants to be one is Catalan. A message that he was already pronouncing 23 years ago and that political Catalanism continues to claim in the face of the rise of the extreme right.