The ANC calls for a return to disobedience to revive the independence movement.

BarcelonaThe independence movement is losing a sheet with every wash. After losing its absolute majority in Parliament, disenchantment is also taking its toll on the streets. The independence movement has once again brought thousands of people out onto the streets for the Diada, but the discouragement caused by the paralysis of the process has resulted in a drop in participation. While last year 60,000 people demonstrated in downtown Barcelona, ​​this year it was half that number, around 28,000 according to the Guardia Urbana (City Police). The ANC (National Action Party) estimated the number of attendees at 100,000 in Barcelona, ​​​​Girona, ​​and Tortosa and emphasized that bad weather could also have influenced the decline in the mobilization. Be that as it may, the independence movement is going through a difficult time.

Faced with this backdrop of disaffection, the president of the Assembly, Lluís Llach, has called for disobedience to rectify the independence movement. The highest representative of the entity called for "organized, persistent, and determined civil disobedience" to respond to "the continued violation of our rights" and cited as an example the recent ruling by the High Court of Justice of Catalonia against language immersion in schools. "If the State and its courts want to impose this ruling on us, we disobey. We disobey the classrooms, the streets, and the institutions, because no judge should tell us what language we should speak or what school we should attend," he exclaimed amid great applause.

Against the backdrop of the relocation of the Sijena works and the chaos on the commuter trains, Llach said that the response must be "nonviolent struggle" and recalled that "the success of October 1st rested on disobedience." "Organized, persistent, and determined civil disobedience will only be effective if we know how to transform spaces of resistance into spaces of counterpower, self-organization, and nation-building," he added.

As he did in the interview with ARA, the activist stressed that now is the time for civil society to push the pro-independence parties to reactivate the Process: "Let everyone be clear: without the strength of the streets, the independence movement will never have solid majorities in Parliament." In this sense, he called for the long-awaited unity of the political forces, which was broken after the 1-O vote in 2017. "From the streets, from the organizations, we demand that you, the parties, find paths to understanding and, taking advantage of the strength of the independence movement and of the people who want a free Catalonia, return the people," he said.

Mossos d'Esquadra separate the Catalan Alliance from the rest of the protesters.

The demonstration proceeded normally, but also with some tension due to the presence, for the first time, of a delegation from the Catalan Alliance, led by its leader, Sílvia Orriols, who had never attended since becoming mayor of Ripoll. The Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan Alliance) surrounded the militants and sympathizers of the far-right party, who were positioned in front of the Pla de Palau, and did not allow them to join the march until some time after the leader had begun. They did not join the leader but marched along the side of Paseo de Isabel II and Paseo Colón until the end of the demonstration. During the march, some of their followers clashed with protesters carrying Palestinian flags and others who accused them of being fascists, without any aggression.

When they arrived at the Rambla, Orriols took the megaphone and said that they were canceling their march because they did not want to listen to the Assembly and they left after singing. The Reapers.

Òmnium claims an integrative Catalonia

At the midday political event, Òmnium Cultural gave Catalan politicians a task to tackle this Diada: confront extremism and hate speech by asserting the inclusive nature of Catalan society and working to ensure that Catalan once again becomes "the main instrument of cohesion" in the country. This was stated by the organization's president, Xavier Antich, in a reduced-format speech that replaced the organization's political event on Passeig Lluís Companys, which could not be held due to the downpour that fell in Barcelona.

"Despite the rain, a very happy Diada!" Antich began from the stage in front of the Arc de Triomf, surrounded by the organization's board. In a five-minute speech, he called for the recovery of "the social hegemony" of the independence movement by defending the country's "great democratic consensus." A country of eight million inhabitants that, he said, is today "sociologically diverse" and faces the challenge of stimulating the social use of the Catalan language again in the face of 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 on Wednesday, the eve of the Onze de Setembre, He held an event, without incidents or major protests, at the Fossar de les MoreresThe 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 regard, he called for promoting a "national sense of Catalan identity and belonging" among newcomers to increase social cohesion within Catalonia, in contrast to those who foster "hatred and xenophobia" around the world.

This is the approach the organization has already embraced. in its roadmap for 2025, which focused on the language and proposed recruiting "new Catalans." Therefore, once again Antich railed against the ruling of the High Court of Justice of Catalonia, which overturned the decree intended to protect Catalan in the classroom, and said that defending the language must be, today, the "great national objective" of Catalanism. A manifesto of the civil independence movement was also scheduled to be read at the event, but 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 that it 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 away."