Guardiola calls on the international community to support the Catalan referendum

Manchester City coach, Pep Guardiola, read a manifesto in favor of a referendum on Catalan independence at a rally on Sunday. “We appeal to all democrats – in Europe and around the world – to stand by us in defending the rights that are under threat today in Catalonia, such as freedom of political expression,” Guardiola said in front of the 30,000 people who had gathered under the motto “Referendum is democracy” at the emblematic Montjuïc fountains in Barcelona. Civil and municipality organizations had called on the citizens to show their support for the referendum, planned for October 1 and which the central government has vowed to stop at all costs. Guardiola also reminded the crowd about Spain's actions against the self-determination process in Catalonia, such as the conspiracy to destroy the Catalan health system or the judicial prosecution of elected representatives, which he said were unworthy of a twenty-first-century European democracy. “This scandalous political situation can only be answered with more democracy,” the renowned former FC Barcelona coach said. Numerous speakers of the different entities also defended that “the only possible answer is to vote”.