national day

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Judge prohibits Badalona City Hall from working on Spain’s National Day

October 11, 2016 07:49 PM | ACN

Administrative Court Number 14 of Barcelona has prohibited Badalona City Hall from opening any municipal offices on Spain’s National Day, this Wednesday the 12th of October. The municipal government of Badalona announced earlier this week that it would offer their workers the possibility of working during the festivity in exchange for another free day, the 9th of December, coinciding with the Immaculada long weekend. This measure would have allowed the opening of offices providing services to citizens, with a skeleton staff of at least 50%, but the judge believes there are political intentions behind the municipal government decision to turn the 12-O into a voluntarily holiday and that these would harm "the general, social and collective interest" of the celebration, as well as the "ideological freedom" of workers. Parallel to the rise of Catalan national sentiment, the 12th of October is regarded in Catalonia as a day used by extreme-right forces to claim the union of the country and fight independence. 

Five cities, one heartbeat: This is how Catalonia’s National Day rallies took place

September 11, 2016 10:06 PM | ACN

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.