Starting in 2012 and during the years of the process, the trajectory of Òmnium Cultural and the Catalan National Assembly (ANC) was explained almost in parallel. Much of the credit went to the good harmony between its leaders. The agreement was so good that it is difficult to separate in the independence imagination Carme Forcadell from Muriel Casals, Jordi Sànchez from Jordi Cuixart (the Jordis, they were called when they were in prison), Elisenda Paluzie from Marcel Mauri.
Between Dolors Feliu and Xavier Antich it is a little different. There is deference and sympathy, but not so much agreement. In 2022, Òmnium learned to ignore what others would say and opted to openly mark a more differentiated profile from that of the ANC. Òmnium demonstrated it by showing in public during its Festa per la Llibertat de la Diada last year the will to lead a strategic direction of the independence movement, in the image of the General Staff that in hiding made 1-O possible, but incorporating many more actors .
A change was also manifested during the same Onze de Setembre demonstration organized by the ANC. “It is not about finding culprits, but about finding accomplices,” said Antich on stage. It gave him a good whistle. Or when in the middle of a meeting at the Palau de la Generalitat with Pere Aragonès in front, the leader of Òmnium reproached the president of the ANC for shortly before coming out with the idea of proclaiming a DUI in the second half of 2023. And even more: in In an interview with La Vanguardia, Antich made it clear that his entity would not go to the Assemblea protest against the reform of the Penal Code. “We will not go to the ANC demonstration; “We will not contribute to the confrontation between independentists,” he said.
However, the disputes have not gone further for months and on Friday, for example, they presented the National Pact for the Civil Movement for Independence, together with the AMI, the Intersindical and the Consell de la República.
But the history of Òmnium and the ANC began to differ before, with the numbers, both of members and economics.
The ANC experienced a time of effervescence in the first years of the process that was reflected in its increase in members. In 2012, when it was just born, it had 5,000 full members (those who pay fees) and more than 3,600 supporters. In 2020, when a new secretariat was elected, the census reached 49,530 full members and 49,700 sympathizers. Added, 99,230. Since then, the number of militants has decreased. The organization itself today limits itself to saying that there are more than 40,000 members paying dues. He does not detail more because he recognizes that it is decreasing. The internal struggles and the deep crisis that a few months ago led to the resignation of 13 members of the management and its vice president have not helped.
Òmnium, on the other hand, has experienced very exponential growth. Founded in 1961, the association closed in 2012 with 32,100 members; In 2015 it had 54,000. But the most spectacular increase was in 2017, especially after Cuixart's imprisonment in October: from the 63,218 members it had in January it went to 95,359 in December. The increase did not stop. Today it has 190,000 members. And everyone pays a fee. It is the entity with the most members in Europe.
The two entities ensure that 100% of their income comes from their own funds. At Òmnium, 89% of them come from associate fees. It is 72.15% in the case of the ANC; Of the remaining 28%, half comes from merchandising, especially the sale of Diada t-shirts.
In any case, the difference in the number of partners also marks the difference in assets: Òmnium had nine million euros in 2022 (at the end of 2011 it was two million); The ANC currently has 2.6 million, and has constantly hovered around this figure since at least 2015 (that year, for example, it had 2,217,071 euros).
With respect to territorial implementation, the ANC has nearly 600 local and territorial assemblies, although in recent times it has had problems finding people to occupy the secretariats of some of them, despite the competition that was seen with the emergence of the local councils of the Consell de la República. It also has sixty sectoral assemblies and almost 40 assemblies outside Catalonia.
Òmnium has much more modest numbers at this point: 46 territorial headquarters, six management offices and the national headquarters, in Barcelona. There are two more: that of Catalonia del Nord and that of l'Alguer. In the coming months they will add a headquarters in Andorra.
