Gathering of Catalan separatists who have come to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the self-determination referendum in Barcelona on October 1, 2022. JOSEP LAGO / AFP
” For a ! For a ! “, ” Off ! Off ! Despite serving more than three years in prison for “incitement to hatred” for her involvement in the attempted secession of Catalonia in October 2017, the separatists welcome the former speaker of the Catalan Parliament, Carme Forcadell, with insults, takes the stage under the Arc de Triomphe in Barcelona on Saturday, October 1. “Traidora! “, “Traitor! The screams continue as she takes the floor to appeal to the five-year referendum remember, which was considered illegal by Madrid and in which almost two million Catalans defied the ban on voting and the Spanish police put a ballot paper in the ballot box for the independence of Catalonia.
“October 1 [2017]we have defeated the state [espagnol], we have committed the most important act of civil disobedience since the civil war and the most important act of sovereignty in the last three hundred years,” launches this former teacher, 67 years old, fighter for the left-wing Republicans of Catalonia, to increasing boos (ERC), the 2021 was released from prison thanks to a pardon granted by the Spanish government to socialist Pedro Sanchez. The whistling eventually covers his voice completely, forcing him to give in prematurely.
In pictures and videos (2017): Independence referendum in Catalonia: yes prevails in a climate of violence
“La Forcadell allows herself to teach when she has given in to government blackmail. She surrendered to justice in exchange for a brief stint in prison. She didn’t understand what a revolution is. We had to go all the way, even if it meant using the Corsican method: bombs and bullets. Politicians are all traitors who think only of their wages,” cowardly in the midst of a disappointed crowd Salvador, 39, wearing a cap, spoke in a mixture of Catalan and English—anything but Castilian. “Okay, but we all chickened out and went home without saying anything, me first,” said another protester, Josep, 70.
Less, more radical
Despite dozens of buses from across Catalonia, just over 10,000 people gathered in the Arc de Triomphe square on Sunday to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the 2017 consultation. The Catalan separatists demonstrating today are the most radical. Or most confident. “According to our last survey in November, only 8% of Catalans still believe that the independence process will really lead to independence,” stresses Gabriel Colomé, professor of political science at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB). These are the ones who boo the politicians: the most frustrated and tense. »
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