If there was 8-O it is because there was 1-O. After the traumatic celebration, a week before, of the unilateral independence referendum, on October 8, 2017, hundreds of thousands of Catalans flooded the streets of Barcelona to defend the unity of Spain. Action Reaction.
Today marks five years and Societat Civil Catalana (SCC), the constitutional entity that, together with other actors, such as the Joan Boscà Foundation, organized that massive demonstration that surprised locals and strangers alike, celebrates it "privately". Each moment requires a different adaptation, explains its vice president Álex Ramos, who played a very active role in 2017 and in 2022 sees no reason to be "hyper-revolutionary" but vigilant: "We are there, and we will react again when appropriate", he says with conviction.
“That day we realized that we were not alone”, recalls the president of SCC, Elda Mata, who saw when she got on the train that took her from a station in the province of Girona to Barcelona how the “illusion” prevailed over the “ fear” that, in the previous days, the Catalans who felt Spanish had felt.
Fear is a recurring feeling when remembering what happened. He is also referred to by Fernando Sánchez Costa, who presided over SCC for three years and today aspires to be the mayor of the PP in Barcelona. “It was a historic turning point,” he explains. For Catalonia, which saw its other self reflected in the mirror, but also for Spain and Europe, where they discovered that the story of hegemonic nationalism did not match that massive “ideological coming out of the closet”. Public space, all sources agree, could not be left in the hands of one part of society while the other remained silent.
The pregnancy was not easy. The parties had been reticent not to further "fester" the situation and the SCC itself ruled out demonstrating, as it had planned, before 1-O due to the doubts of the government of Mariano Rajoy. But the images of that “drama” convinced Mariano Gomà, who was then president of SCC, that action had to be taken. He called Mario Vargas Llosa, who, as suggested by Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo, who accompanied him, could pronounce a "universal declaration" against nationalism, and Ramos, a PSC militant, convinced Josep Borrell, who galvanized the assistance of the left not independent.
However, the Socialists had a discreet presence and Miquel Iceta ceded the leading role to Salvador Illa, who then forged the chapter of his biography that took him first to Madrid as Minister of Health and later back to Catalonia as leader of the PSC.
Ciudadanos, whom some sources reproach for "not helping much but taking advantage" of the march to promote Albert Rivera in his leap into Spanish politics, and PP were also invited to participate, but on the condition that at the rally In the end, even if their leaders were on stage, they would not speak.
“It was indescribable. One could not take a step forward towards the Via Laietana. The city was collapsed”, remembers an assistant, who defines that “peaceful and festive” protest as the “counterpoint to the tremendous environmental tension” triggered by the procés, which culminated in the shock of police violence against unarmed citizens. “Everything was very unfortunate. The State was absolutely clumsy and gave away a propaganda campaign to the independence movement,” reasons a businessman who participated in the creation of SCC, founded in 2014 to counteract the pro-independence project.
Without anyone in the entity having planned it when on Monday, October 2, the board of directors decided to call the demonstration for Sunday 8, the King's speech on the 3rd served as a "revulsive" so that the mobilization, which was talked about every once again on television talk shows and was already flooding social networks, it crystallized. "It was a sudden injection of vitamins," recalls Gomà, who sees "logical" that the independentistas, "within their vehemence", accuse Felipe VI of a lack of empathy in those hours.
Over time, SCC does not forget its successful debut, which was followed by turbulent years, with a reputational crisis in between, and acts discreetly, taking its network of influence to the political offices of Catalonia, Spain and Europe. “If we have to go out again, we will go out”, assures its president, who criticizes the fact that the political parties of the constitutionalist orbit have returned to the “change of cards” with Catalan nationalism.
