Government, Parliament, parties and entities have made this Saturday the traditional floral offering at the tomb of President Lluís Companys, in the moat of the Pedrera de Montjuïc, on the 82nd anniversary of his execution.
The PSC, led by Salvador Illa and José Montilla, was the earliest and then followed the offer of the Government in full - headed by Pere Aragonès and with the seven brand new councillors-, the Parliament Bureau, the Barcelona City Council, Omnium, Junts, CUP, ANC, ERC, Democrats, PdeCAT, Consejo para la República, UGT and En Comú Podemos.
The president of the Generalitat, has vindicated the "anti-fascist" legacy of former president Lluís Companys and has called for "standing up" to the rise of the extreme right, in addition to defending a Catalonia that "includes the whole world", since "it fights and national progress" go hand in hand, he said.
Aragonès has placed a floral offering in the Fossar de Santa Eulàlia del Castillo de Montjuïc (the place where Companys was shot), accompanied by the mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, and the first vice-president of the Parliament acting as president, Alba Vergès.
And later, accompanied by the members of his Executive, including several of the new ministers of his government, Aragonès made a second offering, already at the tomb of ex-president Companys in the Montjuïc cemetery.
Aragonès has considered that the murdered former president represents Catalan institutions "that never give up and that even in the darkest moments maintain their dignity".
As well as "it is a symbol that reminds us - he has said - that in the face of fascism we have to go head-on", something that Aragonès has compared with the current moment: "When all of Europe is threatened by an extreme right that recovers spaces of prominence , we must vindicate more than ever the anti-fascist memory of Catalonia, the anti-fascist memory of Companys and the rest of those immolated by Catalonia".
"We have to remember that if we forget that fascism existed, fascism returns," said the president, who has called for "recovering that anti-fascist memory of the freedom fighters", in order to "stand up to the extreme right".
And he concluded: "It is a day to remember what Lluís Companys means and to also remember that the words Republic, social justice and Catalonia always go hand in hand".
For his part, the head of the opposition and leader of the PSC, Salvador Illa, also carried out a floral offering at the tomb of Companys, accompanied by former Catalan president José Montilla and leaders of the party and the socialist youth.
A tribute that has also been made by the Bureau of the Catalan Parliament, with the republican Alba Vergés at the front, accompanied by the socialists Assumpta Escarp and Ferran Pedret, Aurora Madaula (JxCat), Ruben Wagensberg (ERC) and Carles Riera (CUP).
The general secretary of JxCat, Jordi Turull, has denounced that the mentality of Spain to "crush" the institutions of Catalonia "is still alive in many state sectors", but "now they do not do it with firing squads, but with platoons dressed with toga".
Junts per Catalunya has made that offering with several leaders of the party, with the president of the formation, Laura Borràs, at the front.
"We have come to pay tribute to Companys, who was assassinated by the State for the simple fact of being president of Catalonia, an unprecedented event in democratic Europe, nor that there has been no reparation and annulment of the trial" to the former president, Turull has said in subsequent statements.
Jordi Turull has warned that "this regime and mentality of crushing the Catalan institutions and their people is still fully alive in many levels of the State: "now they don't do it with firing squads, now they do it with squads dressed in toga. We are in the 21st century and there are presidents, leaders and representatives of the people of Catalonia in exile".
A State that, he has insisted, "cyclically has tried everything, has tried to crush our institutions, a State that is willing to do anything to nullify political leadership."
For this reason, on this 82nd anniversary, JxCat has called for the execution of Companys "not to have been in vain": "There is a determined, rebellious people who want to achieve those values that Companys claimed, a free country, full of equality, justice and progress.
Hours before, the JxCat delegation has also carried out the traditional march with torches to the place where Companys was shot at Montjuïc Castle (ERC has done it this year with white carnations), where Laura Borràs has intervened to remember that " Companys was convinced that he was being shot for being president of the Generalitat. It is the State's fight against a cause: Catalan independence."
The Consell de la República, a para-institutional entity chaired by former president Carles Puigdemont from Brussels, has been represented by some of the members of its leadership, including Antoni Castellà, who has charged hard against ERC and has urged him to rebuild the independence unit.
Castellà has revealed that, within the framework of the contacts to reconstruct the so-called "General Staff" of the independence process, last February there was a meeting between parties and entities in which a specific proposal for a route and "lace" of the Council of the Republic.
"Everyone agreed: CUP, Junts, ANC and Òmnium. But it was vetoed by the ERC," said the leader, who has "appealed to the ERC's responsibility to recover unity" from the pro-independence strategic leadership.
