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The Catalan National Assembly (ANC), Òmnium Cultural, the Platform Pro Catalan Sports Selections and the group of jurists ‘Drets’ (‘Rights’) will distribute 30,000 Catalan pro-independence flags at the Champions League match between FC Barcelona and Celtic FC taking place this Tuesday at Camp Nou. The initiative comes after UEFA’s €30,000 fine of FC Barcelona for the displaying of these flags during the Champions League final in Berlin last year. According to the Union of European Football Associations, the fine was issued because it officially condemns in Article 16.2 of its Disciplinary Regulations "the use of gestures, words, objects or any other means to transmit any message that is not fit for a sports event, particularly messages that are of a political, ideological, religious, offensive or provocative nature". 

Spanish Vice President, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, commented on Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont’s call for the Spanish Government to hold a binding referendum in Catalonia. She considered such a demand to be “illegal and opportunistic” and linked it with the Government’s partnership with pro-independence radical left CUP. According to Sáenz de Santamaría, Puigdemont is “tightening the rope because CUP is forcing him to make certain decisions in order to pass the vote of confidence that the President himself announced”. Acting Spanish President, Mariano Rajoy from the Conservative People’s Party (PP), didn’t comment on Puigdemont’s proposal, nor on the massive pro-independence rally that yesterday hit the streets of Catalonia.

CNA interviewed former Catalan President, Artur Mas, on his visit to London last week. Mas, one of the main figures who put Catalonia’s pro-independence roadmap on the political agenda again, insisted on the need to hold a referendum in Catalonia in order to “count whether or not there is a real social majority in favour of independence” and start “creating structures of state”. He also praised “the huge mobilisations” which have taken to the streets of Catalonia for the last five years on the 11^th of September and which have proved “how broad the majority in favour of self-determination is”. “For the first time in decades we’ve had the possibility to explain to the entire world what is really happening in our country” he stated and added that thanks to these powerful demonstrations “the world has seen that Catalonia is determined to go ahead with this process”. 

Barcelona; Salt, next to Girona; Berga, in Central Catalonia; Lleida in the West; and Tarragona in the South beat this Sunday afternoon all at once to demand Catalonia’s Independence. At 17:14 (5.14 pm CET) all the demonstrators lifted a yellow card in the shape of a circle symbolising a heartbeat and responded to the motto ‘Go ahead, Catalan Republic’. According to local police up to 900,000 people took part in the five rallies. Among the demonstrators was the Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, who didn’t follow the path of the former president, Artur Mas, and chose to participate in the rally held in Salt. 

This year’s demonstration on Catalonia’s National Day took place in five different cities simultaneously: Barcelona; Salt, next to Girona; Berga, in Central Catalonia; Lleida in the East and Tarragona in the South. At 17:14 (5.14 pm CET) all the demonstrators lifted a yellow card in the shape of a circle symbolising a heart-beat and responded to the motto ‘Go ahead, Catalan Republic’. According to the organisers, this year’s motto ‘We are ready’ aims to symbolise two things: that Catalonia “is ready to achieve the republic” and that the citizens have already reached “the final stage” of the pro-independence process, explained the presidents of both the Catalan National Assembly (ANC) and Òmnium Cultural, the two main civil organisations behind the massive pro-independence demonstrations held since 2012. 

Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, will call the Spanish Government to hold a binding referendum in Catalonia. He will do so on the 28th of September, coinciding with the vote of confidence to which he will submit in the Parliament. Puigdemont confirmed this this Sunday in a press conference before the international press. He also predicted that there will be constitutive elections in Catalonia within a year’s time, according to the pro-independence roadmap. Puigdemont also commented on Spanish Minister for Foreign Affairs’ statement comparing Catalonia’s pro-independence process “defiance” to a terrorist attack. According to the Catalan President, José Manuel García Margalló’s words were not only “inopportune” but “harmful to victims of terrorism”.

This year’s demonstration to celebrate Catalonia’s National Day on the 11^th of September will be held simultaneously in five different cities all over the territory: Barcelona, Salt, Berga, Lleida and Tarragona. Nearly 380,000 people have already registered to take part in some of these events, united under the motto ‘A punt’ (‘We are ready’). According to the organisers,Catalan National Assembly (ANC) and Òmnium Cultural, this year’s mobilisation aims to symbolise two things: that Catalonia “is ready to achieve the republic” and that the citizens have already reached “the final stage” of the pro-independence process, the presidents of both the civil society associations explained. In the different places where demonstrators are expected to gather, the same concrete action will have to be carried out at 17:14 – symbolising 1714, the year in which Catalonia was defeated by Bourbon troops and lost its institutions. 

All the political parties represented in the Catalan Parliament, except from the Conservative People’s Party (PP), Spanish Unionist ‘Ciutadans’ and radical left pro-independence CUP took part in the flower offering to Rafael Casanova’s statue and recalled the day the city fell to Bourbon troops on the 11^th of September 1714. The Catalan Government led by Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, Catalan Vice President and Catalan Minister for Economy and Tax Office, Oriol Junqueras and Catalan Minister for Foreign Affairs, Raül Romeva, began the tribute and placed flowers at the monument of Casanova. The Parliament’s President, Carme Forcadell and Barcelona’s Mayor, Ada Colau, were next to pay tribute to the Barcelona Chief Councillor, who died defending the city during a 14-month military siege over 300 years ago.

Spanish Minister for Foreign Affairs, José Manuel García Margallo, referred to Catalonia’s pro-independence process and said that he considered it “the most important defiance” that the Spanish Government has faced so far. “A crisis can end, a terrorist attack can be overcome, but Spain’s dissolution is irreversible”, he stated at a meeting of the governing People’s Party (PP) in the North of Spain. Margallo also insisted that an independent Catalonia wouldn’t be part of the EU since it wouldn’t be recognised by any international treaty and would lose “a third” of its wealth. According to Margallo, Catalonia’s independence will lead to a situation of “isolation and poverty”, he added. 

On the 11th of September, Catalonia commemorates the day when it was finally defeated by the troops of absolute king Philip V in 1714. That day Catalonia stopped being recognised as a nation and lost its self-government. Since 2012, mass demonstrations have been added to the commemoration of this historical day and have become known worldwide as rallies that measure Catalans’ feelings and political demands. This year, the Catalan National Assembly (ANC) and Òmnium Cultural, the two main civil associations behind the last pro-independence mobilisations on the 11th of September, have organised actions to take place in five different cities all over the territory: Barcelona; Salt, in Girona; Berga, in Central Catalonia; Lleida; and Tarragona. Under the motto ‘A punt’ (‘We are ready’), the demonstration aims to symbolise that Catalonia “is ready to achieve the republic”.

The Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, posthumously handed over the Gold Medal of the Government to pro-independence Muriel Casals, who died on the 14th of February this year. The prize is the highest recognition of those individuals or institutions whose work in the political, social, economic, cultural or scientific field has been outstanding. Casals presided at the head of the civil association promoting Catalan language and culture Òmnium Cultural andwas one of the main figures responsible for the massive pro-independence rallies which have taken to the streets of Barcelona for the past six years. In 2015, she joined pro-independence cross-party list 'Junts Pel Sí' and ran for the 27-S Catalan Elections. “Muriel leaves a space which will be really difficult to fill” stated Puigdemont during the ceremony held this Thursday.

The Parliament’s President, Carme Forcadell, encouraged the citizens to take part in the pro-independence mobilisation organised once again by the Catalan National Assembly (ANC) and Òmnium Cultural to celebrate Catalonia’s National Day. “This country will be what its people want to be and what they express on the streets”, she stated this Thursday. Forcadell confirmed she will attend the demonstration on the 11^th of September in Tarragona and insisted on the need to celebrate Catalonia’s National Day “in freedom”, as happens “in every country in the world”. Forcadell, who is a founder and former president of the ANC and was therefore one of the main organisers of the last years’ successful demonstrations, stated that since 2012 the Catalan society has “unequivocally” expressed its collective will. 

Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, announced this Wednesday that he will take part in the pro-independence demonstration organised by the civil society associations Catalan National Assembly (ANC) and Òmnium Cultural for the 11th of September. This year’s demonstration will be held in five different cities; Barcelona, Berga, Lleida, Salt and Tarragona. Puigdemont will attend the mobilisation in Salt, the closest city to Girona, where he was mayor between 2011 and 2016. “Politicians are the least important on that day, it is civil society which will play the most important role”, stated Puigdemont. He will be the first Catalan President to attend the pro-independence mobilisations held on Catalonia’s National Day; former President Artur Mas repeatedly refused to so while he was head of the Catalan executive.

English and Scottish experts discussed this Tuesday the obstacles that Catalonia keeps facing in deciding its political future. University of Glasgow Professor, Neil Davidson, Researcher on Catalonia and ‘The Guardian’ Blogger, Luke Stobart, and the Chair of the Scottish National Party (SNP) ‘Friends of Catalonia’, David McDonald, took part in the debate, organised by the Catalan National Assembly (ANC) in England within the framework of ‘Catalan Week’, a set of political and cultural events to explain Catalonia’s pro-independence process to the international audience. ‘Catalan Week’ in London will continue to organise activities throughout the week until Sunday, coinciding with Catalonia’s National Day celebrations in Farringdon.

Radical left pro-independence CUP announced that they will support the head of the Catalan Government in the upcoming vote of confidence that Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, will submit himself to on the 28th of September. Thus, the Government’s partner in the Parliament doesn’t see Puigdemont’s commitment to the celebration of a unilateral referendum on independence as a condition ‘sine qua non’ to renew their confidence in the President. “Hopefully on the 28th of September a referendum to be held in May or June next year will be called”, stated CUP MP Anna Gabriel this Monday, but added that “if this is not the case, CUP could support the vote of confidence and discuss how to culminate Catalonia’s political process later”. Although Gabriel didn’t consider the referendum as a red line for renewing confidence in Puigdemont, she insisted that this would be the best democratic instrument to move towards Catalonia’s independence.