On the occasion of the sixth anniversary of the referendum of October 1, 2017, at the unitary act of independence, former president Carles Puigdemont yesterday claimed the unitary formula that led to the holding of the consultation, the union of the politics and institutions with civil mobilization and organizations, and called for the "cardinal points" of the 1-O not to be "mis-sold" in exchange for "personal exits" that replace "collective progress ".
Words that can be interpreted as an indirect insult to the Republican Left, given that Puigdemont has referred several times to the pardons that ERC agreed during the last legislature with the Government of Pedro Sánchez as "personal solutions", and that he also criticized that there has been an attempt to corner the Council of the Republic - entity that he chairs -, as he said, "to corner the 1-O". "The 1-O is an inexcusable political reference and all attempts to reduce its legitimacy and transcendence from the opposite camp or sometimes from the own camp have failed or will fail", warned the also leader of Junts in his intervention by video conference .
The commemoration of last year's referendum, on the fifth anniversary, had as a backdrop the crisis of the Government of the Generalitat that ended with Together outside the Executive of Pere Aragonès. On the sixth anniversary, the setting has been changed - also the location, Plaça Catalunya replaced the Arc de Triomf - and the negotiations for the possible investiture of Sánchez are now the leitmotif of the beginning of the political year. But the former president avoided making references to this affair at all times, since he did not even pronounce in a direct and clear way the two key words that independence puts on the socialists' table: referendum and amnesty.
Earlier, Puigdemont had referred to 1-O as "the day that Catalonia, in a democratic way, began to walk as an independent republic". After warning of the "risk of rewriting the meaning" of the consultation by those who "wanted a more placid political life", Puigdemont pointed out that it is clear that "whatever happens in regional politics, it was necessary to maintain the position and to consolidate it for when the circumstances of a new national advance arise".
Likewise, he pointed out that he will not let what the 1-O means run and that he will not let "anyone turn the page" on his behalf.
The one who clearly and explicitly claimed the amnesty from the stage was the president of Òmnium Cultural, Xavier Antich, who for that received some boos from the audience, the same thing that happened to him last year to the former president of Parliament Carme Forcadell when she tried to intervene. Antich, in addition, stood up to bring to the bench the accused policemen of the device of the 1-O and remarked that the amnesty serves to "force the State to amend itself and to recognize that voting is not a crime and that those convicted and sanctioned have not committed any crime".
The unity rally was attended by the Council of the Republic, Òmnium Cultural, Catalan National Assembly (ANC), Association of Municipalities for Independence (AMI) - which asked that no more mayoralties and councils be given to parties that are not pro-independence – and the sovereignist union Intersindical.
In her speech, the president of the ANC, Dolors Feliu, complained that politicians "look more" at Madrid and the Congress of Deputies than at Parliament. "Our goal is independence, and they ask us for votes in exchange for forgiveness", he lamented. According to Feliu, the amnesty doors have now been opened "to save themselves a sentence from the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg that must come". "We have no desire to be forgiven, or to forgive, until we can exercise our own right as a free people, which we are. And don't get confused by the names. Don't say self-determination and amnesty. Let them say independence with all the letters", claimed Feliu, who pointed out that "independence is made in Catalonia, not in Madrid".
In the morning, the ANC had called another commemorative event of the 1-O alone in Plaça Urquinaona. In that scenario, Feliu, who leads an entity that envisages in its roadmap the possibility of running for the next parliamentary elections, contested the action of the sovereignist parties and challenged the political leaders to proclaim independence on day that there is an amnesty. "If they don't dare, elections", he told the parties he is trying to replace. In the afternoon he insisted on this idea and called for elections again.
At yesterday's event there were representatives of all pro-independence formations, but Junts had a large delegation, with members of Parliament, Congress, councilors, and prominent members of the leadership. From ERC and the CUP, on the other hand, there were only a few leaders. According to the calculations of the Urban Guard, around 4,500 people gathered in Plaça Catalunya, where there was a moment of tension between the demonstrators during the parliaments due to political differences and some shouts of traitors to the politicians or opponents of the amnesty that others were silent.
