The commemoration of six years since the 1-O, the Catalan independence referendum of 1st October 2017, comes in the middle of negotiations between the Catalan pro-independence parties at state level for the investiture of a Spanish prime minister and this fact was at the fore at all times in the unified event called by the sovereignist groups in central Barcelona this Sunday. The negotiations with the Spanish Socialists (PSOE) were present in a new critique from the president of the Catalan National Assembly (ANC), Dolors Feliu, to the parties; in the demand for the amnesty by the president of Òmnium Cultural, Xavier Antich; but especially in the warning from the president-in-exile and president of the Council of the Catalan Republic, Carles Puigdemont, who criticized the attempts to turn the page on the 2017 referendum, even to achieve "personal solutions", but he celebrated that " there is a return to the 1-O". "Today things have started to change, not enough or by a long shot, but in the right direction. We need to explore this path more, and do it more effectively," advised Puigdemont.
The event called in Plaça Catalunya, which according to the Guardia Urbana police attracted 4,500 people, began with protests and whistles from those attending because of an absence that had been spotted: there was no pro-independence estelada flag visible on the stage. The actors Joel Joan and Carme Sansa, MCs for the event, had to add two estelades to the European flags and the official Catalan senyera flags that presided over the event, and apologize "for the mess-up". "We're really sorry," Joel Joan apologized. Ill-feeling among independence supporters was also felt on Sunday in Plaça Catalunya. A year ago, the call to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the momentus 1-O referendum led to heavy jeering against the 2017 speaker of Parliament, Carme Forcadell, and the president of Òmnium; this time, the joint event hosted by the Council of the Republic, Òmnium, the ANC, the Association of Municipalities for Independence (AMI) and the Intersindical trade union again highlighted the strategic divergences. As well as there being protests against some of the speakers heard.
Criticism of ERC
Puigdemont, whose speech closed the event and was greeted with shouts of "President!", commended the the 1-O referendum and warned that all attempts to reduce its legitimacy or significance will always fail - coming "from the opposite camp, and sometimes also from one's own". The Together for Catalonia (Junts) founder, who did not avoid making implicit criticisms of the strategy of the Catalan Republican Left (ERC), and its leader, Oriol Junqueras, described the 1-O as an example of resilience, made a call to continue, "without losing the cardinals points, nor selling them out while looking for personal solutions", and asserted that the exile organization he leads, the Council of the Republic, has acted as a guardian of the 1-O, in the face of those who wanted to forget it, or have tried to rewrite it "to have a more placid political life".
The torpedoes fired at ERC didn't end there. Puigdemont affirmed that the aim of the Council was to maintain that position. He criticized that for years there has been a strategy of trying to push the Council to one side in order to corner the 2017 referendum, and that a year ago he already warned of the risk of moving away from 1-O as a political reference, and made it clear that the Council would not resign itself to the "pax" based on autonomous community status that had been proposed. However, at this point the president in exile assured that things have begun to change and he made a call to explore the new path that has opened up.
Òmnium, amnesty
On behalf of Òmnium Cultural, its president, Xavier Antich, emphasized that what makes the Spanish state tremble is the strength of people united with a common goal, that this was achieved on the 1-O, that a plural and transversal character is the source of the independence movement's strength, and that Òmnium will never renounce it. "Are we working to articulate all this strength of the people again? Or are we going to continue to erode the strength of the movement and give the state the advantage that the continual display of our differences gives it?" he asked. He assured that Òmnium is working for unity and to weaken the state, and that, for this reason, it is acting in the European Court of Human Rights and working to bring the police officers who used violence on 1-O into the dock. "That's why we've been fighting for amnesty for years, to force the state to recognize that voting is not a crime," he affirmed. Again, jeers were heard among part of the crowd, with whistling and cries of "Amnesty, no".
The ANC's critiques
The address by the president of the ANC was radically different. Dolors Feliu launched a new attack against the political parties, whom she criticized for "looking more to Madrid, to the Congress, recently, than to the [Catalan] Parliament itself", and against the Pere Aragonès government in the Generalitat, to whom she suggested that if he wants independence, he should call elections. Feliu did not hide her criticism of the fact that the parties are negotiating an amnesty to facilitate the investiture of Pedro Sánchez, and demanded that they speak clearly, that they "don't get the names confused, that they don't say self-determination or referendum, that they say independence". "We have no desire to be forgiven or to forgive until we can exercise our right as the free people that we are," she asserted. The president of the ANC claimed that if the amnesty is approved in Madrid, the same day in the Catalan Parliament "the word independence must be heard". "Independence is made in Catalonia, it is not made in Madrid. We don't want to be a forgiven and defeated people. We will make independence here in Catalonia and there is only one question. What are we waiting for? For Madrid to tell us that we can do it?" she asked rhetorically.
Before the speeches again brought out the strategic differences, the president of the AMI, Jordi Gaseni - who was presented as mayor of Ametlla, although he is no longer in the post, as he had to correct - he celebrated that a joint event was being held by the independence movement; an event, which, as he explained, "is born of generosity and seeks to be another demonstration of the strength of our desired unity". "From the AMI it is clear who our rivals are. We must take care of the cohesion of the movement. We will continue to do everything for unity of action", he explained, in addition to calling for national politics from the municipalities and not giving "more municipalities to [Spanish] unionism".
On behalf of the Intersindical-CSC, its secretary general, Sergi Perelló, also spoke, making a call to "unite" the efforts of the independence movement, which needed, he said, to accumulate the momentum of all that has preceded it. "Yes, we can move forward with all the voices and all the colours, building an independent and dignified republic for the people," he affirmed.