The cabinet sacked by direct rule calls for people to participate in Catalonia’s National Day with a "commitment to non-violence"
Puigdemont and his former ministers admit that the road to the Republic is "long and complex”
BarcelonaIn a press release issued this Thursday at noon, Carles Puigdemont and the former ministers who were sacked during Madrid’s direct rule called for "A huge turnout, a spirit of non-partisan concord, and an unwavering commitment to non-violence" during this year’s National Day on September 11, thus underlining the "exceptional" circumstances the nation finds itself in. "Due either to prison or to exile, most of us will not be able to join you in person. But we will be there more than ever, and you will feel our presence more than ever", they remarked.
The statement goes on to say that "We are well acquainted with the strategy of provocation employed by those who throughout this period have striven to defeat the Catalan people’s civic, peaceful spirit; they have tried it by means of elements of the state apparatus, by means of powerful propaganda, by means of powerful financial backers, and now they are trying to stir up a confrontation to end peaceful coexistence".
According to the the statement, "The opponents of democracy are planning on us giving in to such temptations, in their attempts to take away our voice and impose the use of force. We refuse to deviate even one millimetre from an attitude that the whole of Europe can see for itself and which it respects”.
In the text, Puigdemont and his former ministers recognize that the path to the Republic is "long and complex." A path that draws energy from October 1, the day on which "a new era began" and that on this National Day ought to be strengthened by the "values of the Republic".
