“What was it that made us all get in the lane? The strength of the people. And the first challenge we have is to make people hope again and find meaning in mobilizing again”. Jordi Turull, secretary general of Junts per Catalunya, has called on the independence movement to "take action" as of the celebration of the fifth anniversary of 1-O, after five years of "seeing them coming and enduring the blows". However, Turull has recognized that this effort and finding the motivation to take to the streets "is now more of an adversary than this non-stop of the Spanish State" against the independence movement.
Within the framework of the Universitat Catalana d'Estiu, which is held in the town of Prada de Conflent, the president of JxCat has opined that it is necessary to "restart" in order to reactivate the independence movement and has called on the independence movement to be proactive. An attitude that, in Turull's opinion, should be demonstrated from next October 1, when a demonstration is called in the vicinity of the Arc del Triomf in Barcelona, led by the Consell per la República chaired by Carles Puigdemont, on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the 1-O.
"People ask us for the score to complete" independence, Turull said, and used a metaphor to indicate when the movement should be reactivated: "The first question we have to ask ourselves is: do we want to climb the Canigó this summer or do we not want to climb it? this summer?". "Can someone tell you, look, I want to upload it but when it goes well, not this summer", he added in an indirect allusion to Esquerra.
During the opening day of the conference in Prada, Turull has insisted on demanding unity of action, both from entities and political parties. "People have told me: listen, when you seriously go to one o'clock again, we will be there again", underlined the general secretary of Junts, while stressing that going to one o'clock does not necessarily occur as reaction to "the repression" or to attacks against the Catalan identity. "You have to take the initiative."
"The great potential of political Catalanism is the people (...) and the independence movement has gone from the bottom up", said number two of Junts when referring to the entire journey that culminated in the holding of the referendum on 1 October 2017. For Turull, the traceability of “1-O, referendum or referendum” has been surpassed by the logic of “independence or independence”, legitimized, as he has said, ballot box after ballot box, that is, by the results of that vote, in addition to the pro-independence majorities obtained in the elections of December 21 of that year and February 14, 2021.
Turull considers that this is so because “the Spanish State will not allow a referendum” on independence to be legitimated democratically through an agreement. “Before there was an unfriendly blue window display”, he assured in reference to the governments of Mariano Rajoy, “and now a red window display that may be nicer, but when you enter the store they tell you there isn't one and that you go out if not they will come out of the back room and you will find out”, in reference to the Government of Pedro Sánchez.
The leader of Junts has at all times avoided criticizing ERC, which is committed to dialogue with the State and believes that these moments do not meet the conditions for a massive and continued mobilization over time. Even so, Turull has judged that if "the sense of transcendence prevails and the people press" it can cause the independence movement to be reactivated. “In Junts we put all the generosity so that when we say that we restart we will be there. What will the others do? They will have to decide, but I believe in political and social unity, and if there is social unity, politics ends up coming”, he stressed.
