Demonstrations for independence throughout Catalonia

September eleven is the Catalan national day. It evokes the last day of Catalan freedom before to be defeated by French and Spanish armies on 1714. The night before torchlights marched through forty villages. In Berga there were three hundred people, in Vilafranca the march was followed by 2.000 and three thousand lighted Manresa or Vic.


Demonstrations for independence were convoked the days ten and eleven. For instance in Vic, Reus, Lleida (half a thousand people for independence and 2.000 demanded more self-government), Girona (5.000 for independence and 200 for self-government) and Barcelona. In the main city division between several independentist proposals was highly lamented. Local police counted nine thousand people (last year they counted 14.000). Organizers counted 30.000 as the last year.

A fist march ended in the Fossar de les Moreres were 1714 martyrs are buried. There was a meeting and some masked people burned Spanish and French flags as well as a portrait of the Spanish king. All this acts are prosecuted with high penalties in Spain. In USA you have the right to burn a USA’s flag. The second march was lead by civical platforms with no political form (Plataforma pel Dret a Decidir and Sobirania I Progrés). It was followed by two new independentist parties, Catalan Solidarity for Independence and Rally. Some people demanded unity between them because their aims are the same. At last there was the ERC’s march with several members of the autonomous government. Scottish delegations supported ERC and Solidarity and the PQ’s president, P. Maurois, from Quebec, was in the ERC’s block. No violent incident was reported unlike unionists meetings as the World championship celebrations with dozens of people detained or the pro bullfighting who destroyed a ERC’s building last July.