The pro-independence parties are anxious about the upcoming September 11th and the celebration of Catalonia’s national day (known as Diada Nacional de Catalunya). They are also worried about the mobilisation that may take place, in what once were great triumphs of the pro-independence movement, and the first steps towards national freedom. Now there is latent confusion and a certain unease about how to get out of the impasse in which the Spanish state has placed the pro-independence leadership through police repression (civil guard and national police), judicial repression (investigative judges, the High Court of Catalonia and Spain’s Supreme Court) and economic repression (Court of Accounts).
In this dense network of repression, the Spanish state has built a barrier that the pro-independence movement has not been able to overcome. Admittedly, it has not retreated either, at least as far as can be understood in its social and civic framework. The pro-independence knows its destination, a state of its own, and repeated electoral victories prove this. The milestone of surpassing 50% of the vote on the February 14th elections and obtaining more pro-independence MPs than ever before is evidence of a stubborn reality: backward steps will, in all likelihood, not be backed by the movement, even if people know that the deep state is not going to make it easy.
As it usually does come the end of August, the ANC has begun explaining the design of events related to the Diada, and the Spanish state has brought out its political artillery to lower expectations. Nothing new, on the other hand, as long as the independence movement is clear about its strategy. The unity of the pro-independence parties is far from a reality. The fact that the Diada rally will start in Plaça Urquinaona (place where a massive confrontation between pro-independence protesters and Spain’s national police took place following the verdict in the political prisoners’ trial) and end in front of the Catalan Parliament has the clear objective of urging the pro-independence MPs on. The rally also aims to highlight the success and the mandate of 1st October 2017.
To counter the ANC's message, the Spanish government's delegate in Catalonia, Teresa Cunillera, has come forward. The PSC leader warned about the objective of the dialogue table that Pedro Sánchez has agreed to set up in September. According to the minister, the dialogue table will deal with coexistence, not amnesty, referendum and self-determination, as demanded by the Catalan government. Apparently, the Spanish government’s only agenda, is to attempt to get pro-independence parties to soften their demands. Very little to offer if they intend to nurture dialogue for two years as initially planned.
The engines of the Diada have started up and beyond everything that can be said, there always has been an inexorable truth: the mass Diadas have set the political agenda, sometimes overriding decisions of leaders and parties.