‘Via Lliure’: A mass rally on Catalonia’s National Day “to start building a new country”
A gigantic demonstration is being prepared by the two civil society associations supporting the independence process, the Catalan National Assembly and Òmnium Cultural, for Catalonia’s National Day. The ‘Via Lliure cap a la República Catalana’ (‘Gateway to the Catalan Republic’) arrives after three years in a row of historic pro-independence rallies that have gathered more than 1.5 million people each. This time the demonstration will take place along Meridiana Avenue in Barcelona and there are already 360,000 people registered to participate. The rally will make its way along a 5.2-kilometre-stretch, from the ‘Parc de la Ciutadella’ – where the Catalan Parliament is located – to the outskirts of the Catalan capital, symbolically linking the institution that represents Catalonia's sovereignty with the streets of Barcelona and the rest of the country.