Xavier Antich: "Immigration has been a structural component of Catalonia for over a century, and we are proud of it."

BarcelonaÒmnium Cultural has given Catalan politicians a task to do this Diada: confront extremism and hate speech by asserting the inclusive nature of Catalan society and working to ensure that Catalan is, once again, "the main instrument of cohesion" in the country. This was conveyed by its president, Xavier Antich, in a reduced-format speech that replaced the political event that the organization had organized, as it does every year, on Passeig Lluís Companys, which could not be held due to the downpour that fell in Barcelona this afternoon.

"Despite the rain, a very happy Diada!" Antich began from the stage in front of the Arc de Triomf, where the organizers had removed the seats for the audience when it became clear that the bad weather would make the event impossible. Surrounded by the entity's board, and in a five-minute speech, Antich called for the independence movement to regain its "social hegemony" by defending the country's "great democratic consensus." A country of eight million inhabitants, he said, is today "sociologically diverse" and faces the challenge of stimulating the social use of the Catalan language again, given the decline in speakers. Currently, Catalan is the native language of less than a third of the population.

The background to the intervention of the president of Òmnium is the growth of the extreme right and of the Catalan Alliance, which this Wednesday, the eve of the Onze de Setembre, broke into the Fossar de les Moreres without incident or major protests with its leader, Silvia Orriols, at the helm. The rise of this force and its rhetoric is worrying the organization, to the point that this Thursday, Antich explicitly emphasized the role that immigration has played in the construction of Catalonia.

"This diversity is not an anomaly. Immigration has been a structural phenomenon for over a century, and we are proud of it," Antich said. In this sense, he called for stimulating the "national feeling of Catalan identity and belonging" among newcomers to increase social cohesion within Catalonia, in contrast to those who cater to "hatred and xenophobia" around the world. This trend is countered by an "inclusive and open" Catalonia.

In fact, this is the approach that the entity has already embraced. in its roadmap for 2025, which focused on the language and proposed recruiting "new Catalans." Knowledge and use of Catalan is central to this strategy. Therefore, Antich has once again criticized the ruling of the Catalan High Court, which overturned the decree protecting Catalan in the classroom, and has stated that defending and promoting the language must be, today, the "great national objective" of Catalan nationalism.

The "barbarism" in Ukraine and Palestine

The president of the organization also paid tribute to Palestine and Ukraine, in the face of the "cruel barbarism" being experienced, fueled by "the erosion of democratic systems" around the world, from Trump's United States to Putin's Russia. "Catalan identity is not complete if we do not react to the indiscriminate and systematic violation of international humanitarian law and the right to self-determination of peoples," he said. He also claimed this right to self-determination for Catalonia, "a country that does not surrender." "In times of shipwreck, we must be a port, the port from which to work for the future of the nation, the freedom of the country, and the full restoration of the national rights of Catalonia and the Catalan Countries," he argued. Antich also called for this, based on the recognition of "political pluralism" within Catalan nationalism, sovereignty, and the independence movement.

The event was also scheduled to feature a reading of a manifesto for the civil independence movement, featuring historical figures linked to the movement, as well as new, younger figures. Rain prevented this part of the event from taking place. The text, released by Òmnium, emphasizes that the independence movement already existed before the Process and continues to exist in the Catalonia governed by Salvador Illa: "Some would like us to believe that everything began and ended a decade ago, but we must be aware that we come from very far back. We are children of dark times," he states. The manifesto argues that the reasons for being pro-independence "continue to exist," from the chaos in the commuter train system to the fiscal deficit, including the linguistic emergency, the housing emergency, and climate change.