At lunchtime, thousands of people were already gathering on Barcelona’s Paral·lel avenue to take part in the pro-independence demonstration called by the ANC on the occasion of the Diada of September 11, although with the significant absence of the visible heads of ERC.
The demonstration, whose leader left there at 5:14 p.m. for the Estación de Francia, puts to the test the mobilizing force of the independence movement, at its moment of greatest division, after the clash between the ANC and a ERC that, in an unprecedented decision, has distanced itself from the mobilization due to its critical approach to the Government’s dialogue strategy by Pere Aragonès.
In addition to the announced absences of the Catalan president and the ERC ministers, neither Oriol Junqueras nor Marta Vilalta nor other important leaders attended the demonstrationso that the former president of Parliament Carme Forcadell is one of the few visible faces of the party in the march.
Jovent Republicà, the ERC youth, have also converged with the ANC demonstration at the Estación de Francia, although sources from this youth organization point out that they share their party’s assessment of the call.
who yes have attended the demonstration have been the members of the senior staff of JxCatincluding the general secretary, Jordi Turull, the president, Laura Borràs, and ministers such as Jordi Puigneró or Jaume Giró, as well as Xavier Trias, former mayor of Barcelona, received by his colleagues with shouts of “mayor”.
The mobilization -which this year has as its motto “Tornem-hi per vèncer. Independència” (Let’s go back to win. Independence)- has already been losing steam in recent years: in 2019, the Urban Guard estimated the number of attendees at 600,000 and in 2021, coming out of the pandemic, they fell to 108,000, far from the records prior to 1- EITHER.
There is an indicator that may suggest that this year the figure may approach or slightly exceed that of 2021: according to the ANC, 240 coaches have been chartered to bring protesters from different parts of Catalonia, somewhat above the just over 200 coaches of the last year, although very far from the 1,300 of 2019.
At 6:30 p.m., at the end of the march, a political act will begin on the stage installed next to the Estación de Francia, with speeches by the president of the ANC, Dolors Feliu, the president of Òmnium Cultural, Xavier Antich, and the president of the Association of Municipalities for Independence, Jordi Gaseni.
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