Òmnium Cultural has given a press conference this Thursday to announce a campaign for the release of the Catalan political prisoners and the return of the exiles. The organisation's vice-president, Marcel Mauri, explained the campaign, saying that they want "tourists to know there's a mobilised country".
The campaign describes a Catalan fight "for democracy" and criticises the "repression" of the Spanish state. Òmnium has prepared three buses painted with the slogan "freedom for all Catalan political prisoners and exiles" in different languages which will spend two weeks driving up and down the Catalan coast from the Costa Brava down to the Costa Daurada, via Barcelona.
Photo: ACN
The organisation says their objective is for "tourists to see there's a country mobilised, a public which carried out the 1st October [referendum in 2017] and which has taken to the streets and that there's a Spanish state which violates rights and freedoms". Òmnium has prepared two buses to drive up and down the coast and another to be a travelling exhibition. They've also created postcards with a series of images of the most important days of the independence process with quotes like "the Catalan people want dialogue" in various languages.
Vols veure com són les postals que es repartiran durant la campanya #FreeThemAll? N'hi haurà 4 models i mostraran la Catalunya i l’Estat espanyol que no surten a les guies turístiques pic.twitter.com/7arOYpChCj
— Òmnium Cultural (@omnium) 9 août 2018
Translation: Do you want to see the postcards to be handed out during the #FreeThemAll campaign? There will be four of them and they'll show the Catalonia and the Spanish state which don't appear in the tourist guides.
The organisation has also created posters and t-shirt for the campaign and, finally, an "international pack for Catalans travelling abroad" including a t-shirt, four postcards and stickers saying "freedom for all Catalan political prisoners". The aim being that Catalans can explain the situation around the world as they travel.