The Council for the Catalan Republic announced today that its planned rally for 1st October, the date of the 2017 independence referendum which this year will pass its fifth anniversary, will be held at the Arc del Triomf in Barcelona, with a slogan expressing a clear will to complete the independence process: "Let's defend October 1st, let's win independence" is the event's slogan. The rally will start at 5pm.
In a press conference held a few days ago in Barcelona, Antoni Castellà, a member of the governing board of the exile-based pro-independence organization, stressed that this rally - a new event for the Council for the Republic - will have the support of other key pro-independence groupings the Catalan National Assembly (ANC), Òmnium Cultural, the Association of Municipalities for Independence, the Intersindical CSC union and the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce. "The important thing is that we are all there. We want to send a message to the people that, in what really matters, we are in agreement. There is a very clear idea that we share: the 1-O was a legal referendum, the yes option won and this result legitimizes the political struggle to become an independent state", stated Castellà.
"Let's defend October 1st, let's win independence" on the poster for the 1-O rally.
From the ANC, the vice-president Jordi Pesarrodona declared that this 1st October event will be key in order for "this strategic unity to be seen", because it is from this "unity" that "we will achieve independence, with the force of everyone". The president of the Association of Municipalities for Independence, Jordi Gaseni, pointed out that "1st October will never be forgotten" and he asserted that Catalonia must have "another opportunity, and that is why we must stay together". "It is a good time to recover the unity of action", added Gaseni, who told those present that they can "depend on the municipalities, 800 local bodies are ready". On behalf of Òmnium, Blanca de Llobet pointed out that "five years have gone by and the number of people facing state repression has not stopped growing - the organization calculates that there are more than 4,000". For this reason, the organization's representative defended the legacy of the 1st October: "It is one of Catalonia's greatest exercises in democracy, with the citizens organized and a transversal character." From the Intersindical-CSC trade union, Sergi Perelló, concurred that it is essential to "keep that historical event alive", and therefore the rally is "necessary and vital".
The Council for the Republic is trying to achieve strategic unity, but this time it will not be based on the unity of the political parties, given the impossibility, but through the civil society organizations and the public. The Council for the Republic's event will culminate the political acts that will begin for the Catalan National Day on September 11th, centered on the pro-independence demonstration organized by the ANC in Barcelona's Avinguda Paral·lel.