20.10.2014 - 13:23
After a week of political unease in the sovereigntist movement because of the breakdown of the unity between the political parties leading it, despite the reigning uncertainty, the event held yesterday in Plaça de Catalunya in Barcelona, gave a drive to the roadmap with two clear milestones: to vote massively at the consultation of 9-N and to call plebiscitary elections within three months.
The 110,000 people who attended the gathering, which was called by ANC and Òmnium Cultural, the two entities bringing together the civic sovereigntist movement, also made clear their priorities with cries of ‘unity’ ‘we want to vote’ and ‘independence’. During the act, Carme Forcadell, the president of the ANC, announced that they would support the 9 November if there was political unity and if president Mas called elections. ‘We agree to be guarantors of this process. We will support the 9-N, but we demand political unity and the holding of elections. President Mas, call elections. We want to vote within three months; we want to start the spring of 2015 with a new constitutive parliament. If you do this, you will have our support and we will turn the 9-N into a massive mobilisation just as we have done on 11 September in recent years’.
Muriel Casals, the president of Òmnium Cultural, had previously said that, ‘The 9-N must be the first round of an electoral process that the people of Catalonia will experience in the coming months when they are called to plebiscitary elections to the Parliament of Catalonia in which everyone can say whether they want independence or not. We will turn out to once more show the world our absolute determination to decide on our own future and to report the State that fails to recognise our rights. On 9N we will vote and we will also challenge the improper State.’
Here you can see the video of this moment with time lapse by Albert Claret (GigaPhoto Agency). It shows the square from first thing in the morning until it was overflowing at the time of the meeting in just 16 seconds.
The event closed with the singing of the ‘Segadors’ Catalan national hymn by a Plaça de Catalunya brimming with people. See video:
