The Catalan Parliament has woken up this morning surrounded by absolutely exceptional security measures. The building is shielded behind a police cordon that blocks not only access to the palace but also to the popular Parc de la Ciutadella park it sits in. Inside, almost a thousand journalists from around the world have set up hundreds of cameras waiting to follow live the reactions after the president brings the results of the 1st October referendum to the chamber this afternoon.
Streets have been shut, bus routes have been changed, even the nearby França railway station, the second busiest in the city, has seen its normal operation affected.
Translation: Travel in the city might be affected today. If you have to travel, check #infotrànsit [#travelinfo] at https://t.co/hIv1SQ4LGK and at @TMBinfo.
The Ciutadella park has closed access to both the public and vehicles. The car park where deputies normally leave their cars has been taken over by dozens of mobile units of different television stations parked at all angles in front of the palace and on the paths. As usual, only the Parliament can broadcast events within the chamber. During the session, only stills photographers will be able to take images inside.
Parc de la Ciutadella team to guarantee security given the calls for different gatherings. Access restricted to authorised persons.
A total of 938 press accreditations have been processed for today by the Parliament's press service, of which 358 are for foreign journalists. To that total must be added journalists with standing accreditation, which means there will be over a million reporters able to follow the session.
Among the 126 foreign media companies to be present at the palace today are the largest agencies in the world, the main European and US media outlets as well as channels from Canada, Russia, Japan, Colombia, Argentina, Australia, Chile, Brazil and Qatar.
All of this is in preparation for the president's speech, expected at 6pm local time (GMT+2) this afternoon. At that time, major pro-independence organisations ANC (Catalan National Assembly) and Òmnium Cultural have called for a rally in passeig Lluís Companys, the wide avenue leading from the park to Arc de Triomf.
The preface to this afternoon's key session has been a meeting of the Parliament's Board. The Catalan government reported the results of the 1st October referendum to the Board, which limited itself to taking note of them. This decision, however, provoked protests from PSC (Catalan branch of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party), who asked for reconsideration, and Ciutadans (Citizens), whilst PP (Popular Party) responded by entering to the record the agreement of the Central Electoral Board saying that the results have no value.
The expectation is that this afternoon will see no vote in the chamber, everything focused on the president's speech. However, Board sources note that if the government's announcement of the results had been accepted for processing that could have led to a parliamentary initiative and opened the door to a vote.