Vox and the PP are also joining in: who will attend each demonstration for Cercanías (commuter rail)?

BarcelonaThere has been no agreement, and ultimately there will be two demonstrations over the commuter rail chaos. The Catalan National Assembly (ANC) accuses the Network of Train Users' Platforms of Catalonia of staging a counter-protest with an alternative march, but the coordinating body downplays the fact that both demonstrations are on the same day and believes that it, not the pro-independence movement, should lead the mobilization. "We told them we were open to collaborating and supporting their demonstration as long as they didn't call for it on the same day," denounced ANC President Lluís Llach on Friday.

Amid this standoff, neither entity has yielded, and two marches against the railway disruption will take place on Saturday, February 7th. The Assembly's march will begin at noon, and the Network's at 5:00 PM. In this divided scenario, what will political parties and organizations do? Which of the two demonstrations will they attend? The pro-independence parties have confirmed to ARA that they will participate in both mobilizations, although ERC has only promoted the users' march on social media. Junts was the most enthusiastic in welcoming the ANC's call to action, and former president Carles Puigdemont issued a call for mobilization.

The PSC has not called for the protest, while Comuns announced on Monday that it would only participate in the Red (network) demonstration. Both the PP and Vox will also take part in this demonstration. "We will attend all demonstrations not called by the separatists, who share responsibility for the railway collapse for having supported Sánchez's government for eight years in exchange for placing Junts and ERC cronies on the boards of directors of public and state-owned companies," say sources from the far right. The idea is that the leader of Vox in Catalonia and the party's general secretary, Ignacio Garriga, will attend, unless he has to go to Extremadura to finalize the investiture agreement for the PP's María Guardiola.

The presence of the PP, but especially of the far right, in a social march, in an exceptional situation in Catalonia, has provoked the rejection of the organizers. The Public Transport Promotion Association (PTP), one of the main organizations within the user platform, made it clear in a statement on social media that the Popular Party "is not welcome at this civil mobilization, where they want to participate by carrying out a self-serving act of propaganda, hypocrisy, and provocation," after reminding everyone that they are "responsible for years."

Adrià Ramírez, spokesperson for this organization, also warns that Vox is not welcome at the march: "Far-right parties are not welcome at the demonstration. We don't want them. In fact, all the platforms agreed some time ago not to speak with Vox or Aliança Catalana." Silvia Orriols' party will not participate because it is holding its municipal convention in Ripoll on February 7. Llach has emphasized that not including the pro-independence demand would result in the support of the PP and Vox. "And that is a problem," he warned.

Òmnium rejects the common front with the ANC

Òmnium endorses both calls to action, but has publicly taken a stand on the one organized by the users. The organization supported the ANC demonstration when it was announced, but this Thursday its president, Xavier Antich, participated in the group photo of the organizations convening the afternoon march and later tweeted an encouragement to the mobilization, something he had not done regarding the Assembly's demonstration.

Sources within Òmnium admit they didn't want to align themselves with the ANC: "They asked us to jointly promote the demonstration, but we preferred it to be a unified, nationwide event, and in the end, the Assembly decided to convene it with the Council of the Republic, and we supported their call. We'll be there, but they don't want a confrontation." This stance by Òmnium is also shared by the Association of Municipalities for Independence (AMI), the Intersindical, and Ciemen, which usually organize the Diada demonstration jointly with the Assembly and have now joined the users' march. The major unions, CCOO and UGT, however, only support the afternoon mobilization, as do Greenpeace, the Confederation of Neighborhood Associations of Catalonia (CONFAVAC), the Farmers' Union, the Tenants' Union, and the National Youth Federation of Catalonia, Ni un Paco.