The former speaker of the Catalan Parliament, Carme Forcadell, affirmed that she also feels "disappointed" during the event marking the fifth anniversary of Catalonia's October 1st, 2017 independence referendum. Forcadell responded to the audience, which received her with derisory whistles, with a clear message: "You are disappointed, disillusioned. I feel the same way", but she said that she also feels "proud" because there are still "fighters who never give up". The former speaker took the opportunity to request, still in the face of whistles, that it was time to stop "fighting" in order to find "a common strategy". "Let's stop fighting, complaining, let's forget the blame and work together," said the former speaker of parliament.
Forcadell, who faced continual whistles as soon as she took the stage, praised the public who came to the Arc de Triomf. "Thank you for always being there," she said. "I am especially excited to be able to share this event with president Puigdemont, we hope that he can be here with us in person very soon. Let's do all we can to make that possible," she said.
With reference to the October 1st referendum, Forcadell pointed out that "without the parliamentary session on September 6th and 7th, October 1st would not have been possible." A plenary session that, according to her, "exercised the sovereignty of the Catalan Parliament and of democracy". "Today we are here to commemorate our victory because on October 1st we defeated the Spanish state. We carried out the most important act of civil disobedience since the [Spanish] Civil War." The ERC party member assured that this victory was achieved in the face of "great inequality": "They depended on the strength of the state and we on the strength of the people, your strength made us win."
According to Forcadell, the experience of October 1st must be used "to learn from". "We made many mistakes and we also had many successes. We should makes use of this so that, when a new opportunity arrives, we can culminate it."
Forcadell also recalled the "762 people with pending legal cases" and assured that "their cause is also ours". "We must report that every day there are episodes of repression, that the trials continue, that the threats of imprisonment and fines continue. We must always denounce this," she said. In addition, she affirmed that "a country cannot be free, if all its men and women are not free".
The turnout for this afternoon's rally was estimated at 60,000 by the organizers, the Council of the Republic, who were supported by the ANC, Òmnium, the Association of Municipalities for Independence, the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce and the Intersindical union. Barcelona city police gave their own figure for the turnout, bringing it down to 11,000 people.