A little more than a week before the Diada of September 11, the president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, still seems to unravel the daisy about his presence or not at the demonstration called by the pro-independence entities for this year. The head of the Catalan Executive remains unknown about his assistance as a result of the charged atmosphere within a movement that is increasingly demobilized and irritated with the drift of the parties. In addition, he weighs in his decision the bad experience he experienced last year, booed when he arrived at the Barcelona demonstration.
At a press conference from Palau to present the joint institutional acts between the Government and the Parliament of Catalonia, the spokesperson for the Executive, Patrícia Plaja, reported that she still could not confirm the presence or not of Aragonès in this year's march. “I simply do not have confirmed attendance or not”, but “in the next few days we will be able to specify” about the attendance or not of the president and the rest of the members of the Government, she has pointed out.
Aragonès is at a crossroads. If he attends, it is likely that he will again suffer the reprimand of the protesters, who last year reproached him for his commitment to dialogue with the central government and a lack of commitment to the implementation of independence. If he does not attend, the leading role will be taken by Junts, who has been demonstrating his loyalty to the independence cause with threats of leaving the Government if the president does not redirect his "tactical autonomy".
The Diada appears "difficult", as confirmed by the pro-independence parties, while the conveners have made clear their aversion to the prominence pursued by the parties.
Last year, the demonstration called by the pro-independence entities, still in a context of restrictions due to the pandemic, was already less crowded -some 400,000 attendees according to the organizers and 108,000 according to the Guàrdia Urbana-. And that was the first mobilization with the prisoners released after the granting of pardons by the Government.
'Tornem hi per vencer: independencia' ('Volvamos para vencer: independencia') is the motto of the demonstration that the Catalan National Assembly (ANC) and Òmnium Cultural are finalizing. It will be a march that will take place again in Barcelona, which will start on Avenida del Paral·lel and end on Avenida del Marqués de la Argentera, in front of França station. And in it you want to make a call to non-surrender, to the continued struggle of civil society and to advance towards independence beyond the political parties.
Beyond this march, the Government has presented the official poster of the Diada and the institutional acts. The poster, produced by the 131 graphic studio, vindicates the figure of Joana Raspall (1913 – 2013), a renowned lexicologist, popular for her poetry for children and adults, theatre, stories and novels. Actually there are three posters that, in yellow and red letters, collect some of her most famous verses, and the work has been chosen from among 104 portfolios presented, which participated for the first time in a completely open contest.
Among the scheduled events, the delivery, on September 7, of the Generalitat's gold medal posthumously to the illustrator Roser Capdevila and the pharmaceutical businessman and patron of culture and patron Antoni Vila Casas, in the Parque de los Colores de Mollet del Valles.
The following day, the Parliament's Medals of Honor will be awarded to the musician Pau Riba and the pedagogues Joaquim Arenas and Margarida Muset. And on the 10th Aragonès will launch this year's official speech, from the Roman forum in Empúries, so it will be the first time that a president chooses Girona as the setting for this parliament.
As every year, the institutional acts of the 11th will begin with the traditional floral offering to the Rafael Casanova monument, while the central act of the Diada, in the evening, will again be held in the emblematic towers of Puig i Cadafalch, on Montjuïc . The common thread of the act will be the description of some of the most relevant episodes in the history of Catalonia since 1714, placing the emphasis on women.
