Colau to attend 11 September indy rally on Meridiana to reflect diversity of process
After meeting with the presidents of the ANC and Òmnium, she announced that she will push for “Barcelona’s own commitment” to the constituent process after 27 September, as a nod to the Catalan independence movement
It was a wink from the future mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, to the Catalan independence movement. Colau announced on Tuesday that, as mayor of Barcelona, she will attend the rally that the ANC and Òmnium are promoting for 11 September on Avinguda Meridiana in Barcelona city. By doing so, her goal is to reflect the social and political “diversity” behind the Catalan political process. After meeting with Jordi Sànchez, President of the ANC, and Muriel Casals, President of Òmnium (1), Colau announced her intention to promote “Barcelona’s own commitment” to the post-27 September constituent process. This commitment is still in “the early stages”, and will be defined in the coming weeks, but she wants it to come from a broad participatory process in the Catalan capital.
“We come to reaffirm our commitment to a popular and broad-based process, from diversity”, said Colau, who said that in the “new stage” that will begin on Saturday with the constitution of the new city council in Barcelona, “as a democratic City Hall we will be at any rally that stems from a broad-based consensus to defend rights and liberties”, including that on the Meridiana. For Colau it is “obvious that there is an institutional blockade” by the PP government that “prevents any dialogue and democratic expression, such as the right to self-determination”.
Barcelona’s future mayor said that she would do everything possible to “facilitate” the national process based on “conviction” and not as a political bargaining chip. She believes that in the Meridiana rally there will be room not only for independence supporters, but also for those who --without embracing independence-- consider the regional institutional framework to be obsolete.
ANC and Òmnium, “satisfied” with Colau’s commitment
Both the president of the ANC and the president of Òmnium, who appeared at Colau’s side during the press conference, expressed their “satisfaction” both with their meeting on Tuesday and with the intention of Barcelona en Comú (Colau’s political coalition) to drive Barcelona’s contribution to the post- 27 September constituent process. For Jordi Sànchez it will be precisely in the constituent process that the independence movement will achieve the large majorities that we will see at the ratifying referendum scheduled for 18 months later, he said.
The two main pro-independence organisations have delivered into the hands of Colau and her core of trusted advisors the contents of the preliminary agreement for the roadmap signed so far by CDC, ERC, the ANC, Òmnium, and the Association of Municipalities for Independence (AMI); Barcelona en Comú does not intend to sign the document. Sànchez considered the incoming mayor’s willingness to promote a “Barcelona commitment” to the constituent process as “good news”. He did not interpret this as “a way of skirting” the roadmap, but instead a proactive contribution to the construction of a new country. Colau has opened the door to giving her party’s councilors the freedom to vote as they wish in any eventual decision on Barcelona City Hall joining the Association of Municipalities for Independence.
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(1) N.T. The ANC and Òmnium Cultural are the main grassroots, non-partisan, pro-independence organisations behind the September 11 demonstrations in Catalonia.
