“Make Way for the Catalan Republic” is the slogan of the 11S rally
“Ara és l’hora” (“Now is the Time”) have presented the rally which they hope, at long last, will be “the most decisive” on the road to independence. Barcelona’s Avinguda Meridiana will turn white and people will build a mosaic of a gigantic, colourful wave that will stretch all the way to the Catalan parliament. Online registration starts mid-July.
Barcelona“Make Way for the Catalan Republic”. That is the slogan that the pro-independence rally on Catalonia’s National Day (September 11) will revolve around this year on Barcelona’s Avinguda Meridiana. The promoters (“Ara és l’hora” or “Now is the Time”) --a platform formed by the ANC and Òmnium Cultural (1)-- intend for it to become, at last, the “most decisive” and definitive rally on the road to independence.
They aim to turn the entire Avinguda Meridiana white and then build a mosaic that will create a wave combining the colours that symbolise the ten tenets of the new Catalan Republic, all the way up to the gates of Parliament, in Parc de la Ciutadella. It will look like “a huge wave of anticipation” travelling along Meridiana’s five kilometres.
The choice of white aims to represent a blank sheet where the future country can be drawn and written. This will gradually gain colour as an arrowhead advances, symbolising a GPS “showing the destination --the Republic of Catalonia-- and the direction --the plebiscitary elections of September 27--”. At a press conference, Josep Sabaté, the ANC’s events manager, stated that “we might have to rework our route at times, but we harbour no doubts about where we’re headed”.
The Meridiana rally will be the highlight of a summer crammed with events all over Catalonia that seek to drum up support for independence on the lead-up to the elections of September 27. Online registration for the event begins mid-July. They hope to “fill Avinguda Meridiana to the brim”. At a press conference to present the rally, ANC Chairman Jordi Sànchez added that “we ask everyone who voted on November 9, who was at the V and the Catalan Way, to muck in ... we must take to the streets again so that September 11, 2015 becomes the last separatist demonstration, as that would mean that we will be free soon”. Sànchez remarked that a successful National Day will make a “decisive” contribution to a pro-independence victory on September 27.
With Sànchez were Òmnium’s Chair, Muriel Casals; the ANC events manager, Josep Sabaté and Irene Negre, a member of the ANC’s National Board from the Ebre region. It is precisely in the Ebre area that this summer’s national campaign will kick off next weekend, in an attempt to highlight all ten themes that “Ara és l’hora” have pictured as the tenets of the new Catalan Republic. Every week there will be one major event somewhere in the country. Next Sunday’s will be in Tortosa, on the subject of territorial balance; the event of July 11 in Manresa will be on solidarity; in Vic, on July 18, about embracing the world; on July 25, in Lleida, about diversity; on August 2, in Bolvir, about sustainability; on August 8 in El Vendrell, on equality; in Reus, on August 15, about welfare and social justice; on August 22, in the Gironès and La Selva counties, about innovation; on August 29, in El Voló, on democratic regeneration; and the final event is scheduled for September 5, a week before the Catalan National Day, with a major rally on education and culture in Santa Coloma de Gramenet.
_______
(1) N.T. The ANC (Catalan National Assembly) and Òmnium Cultural are the main grassroots, non-partisan, pro-independence groups behind the September 11 demonstrations in Catalonia.
