Òmnium calls for a shared strategy to "culminate self-determination" and get out of the "institutional impasse"

Two months after February 14 and still without agreement between the pro-independence parties, Òmnium Cultural (a Catalan pro-sovereignty organisation) has raised its finger this Saturday to demand that the result of more than 50% of pro-independence votes of February 14 not be "squandered" and that the "institutional impasse" be resolved. According to the entity, a shared strategy is needed to "culminate self-determination", since it considers that after the past legislature marked by repression a new stage must be opened. "We need a common front", said the vice president of Òmnium, Marcel Mauri, who along with the vice president, Clàudia Pujol, has read a series of actions that the organization believes have to collect the Catalan institutions. "It is necessary to recover the political and institutional initiative. To get out of this institutional impasse. We must chart a clear, broad and shared path that leads us towards the achievement of the Catalan Republic", concludes Òmnium.

Despite this pronouncement, which the national board has made in full - it has only done so on rare occasions since the beginning of the Catalan independence bid -, Òmnium has not wanted to pronounce itself on the pace of negotiations. It has not wanted to put pressure on the parties, but give them homework once the government has been formed. "We are aware of the complexity", said the current vice president. Mauri has assured that it is not up to them to mark the "tempo" of the Parliament and the formation of the government, but he has remarked that as long as the current paralysis is not overcome, the "repression" continues.

In terms of Catalan independence bid, what does this shared strategy pending since 2017 have to look like? "We cannot renounce any path based on non-violence", said Mauri, without specifying which path should be taken. Òmnium offers itself as a "generator of consensus" betting on recognizing all spaces, also the Consell per la República, which weeks ago was one of the problems in the negotiations between Esquerra and Junts.

Medium-term actions

The pro-sovereignty organisation has carried out a process of diagnosis over the last few months to determine what it believes needs to be done by the institutions over the next ten years. Beyond the Catalan independence bid, pending to weave a shared course, Òmnium claims that the Generalitat invest 2% of the budget in culture; promote reciprocity between the various public television stations in Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencia; promote the social use of the Catalan language in the face of the data which have revealed that only a third of the population uses it regularly; to provide the necessary funding to the Catalan audiovisual sector "urgently", and to shield "the Catalan Audiovisual Media Corporation from partisanship", and to guarantee the model of linguistic immersion after the sentence of the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia on the percentage in Spanish in education.

The pronouncement of Òmnium also refers, however, to the fight against the extreme right, now that Vox has burst with eleven deputies in the Parliament. "We need policies to combat hate speech and the political resurgence of the extreme right, reducing vulnerability and promoting social cohesion", said the organization.