Torra: Sunday protest shows Catalan ‘change in attitude’

The president of Catalonia spoke following demonstration against the Supreme Court trial and in support of jailed leaders

Catalan president Quim Torra during an act in Sabadell on February 17 2019 (by Estefania Escolà)
Catalan president Quim Torra during an act in Sabadell on February 17 2019 (by Estefania Escolà) / ACN

ACN | Barcelona

February 17, 2019 04:07 PM

More than numbers, said Catalan president Quim Torra, the protest in Barcelona on Sunday displayed “a change in attitude” of the Catalan people.

In his speech in Sabadell, Torra further said that he had “erased” the expression “to move backwards” from his vocabulary, and urged citizens to do the same, echoing chants from the demonstration such as “not one step backwards.”

The ‘Colla de Sabadell’

The head of the Catalan executive was at an event in the Catalan town just west of Barcelona to honor the so-called ‘Colla de Sabadell’ (loosely translated as ‘Sabadell Group’), an artistic and intellectual collective from the 1920s led by Joan Oliver i Sallarès, Francesc Traval and Armand Obiols.

It was this last writer that Torra paraphrased in his speech, saying “They want to devour us, but we fight to not be devoured.”