Òmnium Cultural and the Catalan National Assembly (ANC) maintain stable bilateral contacts and share objectives. But they differ in the strategies and lately in the way of agreeing on them. The last of their disagreements has been at the expense of the demonstration this afternoon in Barcelona to protest against the reform of the Penal Code, and specifically, against the changes in the crime of aggravated public disorder.
The distances between the two were already foreshadowed on Friday, when Dolors Feliu, president of the second Assembly, accused Òmnium of not being "in the line of putting pressure on the Government of the Generalitat with its involvement in this reform." The answer was given by Xavier Antich, leader of Òmnium, who despite sharing the concern about the redesign of this crime, explained in an interview in La Vanguardia that they will not support the protests because they do not want to contribute to "the confrontation between independentistas." Antich also assured that the ANC raised the protest on its own without reaching a consensus and later exposed its "adherence" to Òmnium. "We won't be trailing anyone," he said.
The controversy does not only affect the two entities with the greatest mobilizing capacity within sovereignty. Representatives of Junts per Catalunya and the CUP, as well as the Consell de la República, will attend the protest, which will end at the gates of the Palau de la Generalitat. The Committees for the Defense of the Republic (CDR) have even taken the no of Òmnium to their land to spur the independence movement to take to the streets. For its part, ERC, as a member of the agreements with the PSOE and Unidas Podemos to carry out the repeal of the crime of sedition, the touch-ups in public disorder and a possible modification of the embezzlement, logically does not support the demonstration.
This new point of friction between independentistas is added to those that occurred for the Onze de Setembre demonstrations and the fifth anniversary of 1-O. Pere Aragonès and Esquerra decided this year not to attend the protest that the ANC traditionally leads for the Diada. The reason? Republicans felt that it was devised against their party. Òmnium participated, despite the fact that he frowned at the summons manifesto.
Twenty days later, the concentration in Barcelona organized by the Consell de la República led by Carles Puigdemont, had more consensus, but did not contribute to channeling the waters. Booed on stage were Carme Forcadell, former president of Parliament and former leader of the Assemblea; Maties Serracant, mayor of the CUP in Sabadell, when he asked those present for a margin for dissent; Jordi Gaseni, president of the Association of Municipalities for Independence (AMI), when he dared to bet on a "strong" Government. And Xavier Antich himself was also whistled when he said that there was no alternative to understanding among all the pro-independence sensibilities.
To round off the loop, two days after September 11, Feliu announced to the press that the ANC, in the meeting that the president of the Generalitat had proposed for a few minutes later, would put on the table a unilateral referendum for the second semester of the 2023. Antich's reaction during the meeting was blunt: he reproached him for not informing Òmnium in advance, as well as considering that this option was out of place.
For the moment, the Assemblea has counteracted Antich's statements. Yesterday afternoon he announced that some sixty civil society entities support the demonstration.
