via lliure

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Catalonia has once again organised one of the largest demonstrations in Europe on its National Day. 1.4 million people formed a 5.2 km line in Barcelona to show their support for the creation of an independent state for Catalonia, according to local police. The organisers from the grass-roots Catalan National Assembly (ANC) put the figure at 2 million. Its president, Jordi Sánchez, urged politicians to go ahead with independence if Yes parties win a majority in the 27th of September election. “They should not let us down. They need to know that they’ve got hundreds of thousands of people behind them. Today we are on the street, tomorrow we will be in the polling station”, he said. According to Sánchez, this year's demonstration has been a “success”.

Yes supporters in Catalonia hit the streets Friday in a new historic rally organised two weeks before a crucial election that is being framed as a ‘de facto’ referendum on independence. The ‘Via Lliure cap a la República Catalana’ (Gateway to the Catalan Republic) covered a 5.2-kilometre stretch of one of Barcelona’s main avenues, the Meridiana. People poured into the city waving the independence flag, known in Catalan as ‘estelada’. Today’s rally is the fourth huge demonstration in support of independence that Catalans have organised on 11 September, their National Day. In previous years, up to 1.5 million people demonstrated in the streets.

The 11^th September is Catalonia’s National Day, which commemorates those who were defeated by Bourbon troops on the same date in 1714, after defending Barcelona during a military siege that lasted 14 months. From that moment onwards, Catalonia lost its self-government institutions, its own laws and freedoms, and the Catalan language was banned and persecuted. The day has numerous ceremonies and celebrations throughout Catalonia. However, this year the commemoration of the National Day is marked by the proximity of the upcoming Catalan elections on the 27^th September and the electoral campaign. 

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. 

Nearly 300 Catalans living in London have come out in support for the independence process and defended a “yes” vote in the forthcoming 27-S elections, set to be a ‘de facto’ plebiscite on independence. Carrying Catalan and pro-independence flags, they marched along the streets of the British capital passing by icons of the city such as St Paul’s Cathedral, Westminster Parliament and the London Eye. The rally was linked to the ‘Via Lliure cap a la República Catalana’ (‘Gateway to the Catalan Republic’), the mass demonstration that the civil society organisations Catalan National Assembly (ANC) and Òmnium Cultural are organising for this coming Catalan National Day, on the 11^th of September. Once the demonstrators arrived at Kennington Park, they displayed the same mosaic that will be created in Barcelona on the 11^th of September. Catalan traditional human towers, ‘Castellers’, and ‘Sardanes’, Catalonia’s traditional dance, were also on display in the most festive part of the London rally.