Finally, none of the ERC ministers will attend the demonstration prepared by the Catalan National Assembly (ANC) for the Diada. Thus, all of them will support Pere Aragonès wielding that they are "in favor of the demonstrations for independence", but that they reject "those that go against independentists", according to sources from the Presidency. It is one of the arguments that the president of the Generalitat had put forward to refuse his assistance to the mobilization in Barcelona, in addition to considering that he is going "against the parties and institutions" and that "deepens into the divergences of independence".
Thus, all of them distance themselves from the ministers of Junts per Catalunya, who on Friday, after Aragonès announced that he would not attend the ANC demonstration, replied one after another that they would be present. Marta Vilalta, spokesperson for Esquerra, although she had left the participation of members of the Government of her party up in the air, already warned on Monday that they would only attend that mobilization if the entity led by Dolors Feliu reconsidered the call.
However, the ministers of the ERC, as well as members of the party's leadership, will participate in many other events of the Diada to claim independence, with the exception of the head of the Ministry of the Interior, Joan Ignasi Elena, who will be at the Center de Coordination of the Mossos d'Esquadra to ensure security.
Oriol Junqueras, president of Esquerra, has given rise to the decision of the republican ministers. This morning, in an interview on Cadena Ser, he showed his "sympathy for the vast majority of the ANC" although he declared himself convinced that "a part of the current leadership has opted for a demonstration that is above all directed against the separatists , or against many independentistas, or against the majority of independentistas, or against the majority party of independentistas". And he implied that he would emulate Aragonès.
The Government spokeswoman, Patrícia Plaja, had avoided clarifying whether the ERC ministers would be at the demonstration at noon. In any case, Plaja had minimized the differences in the Government - "nothing happens", she had come to say - and encouraged citizens to take to the streets so that the Diada "is massive".
