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The ANC has raised the tone of its call: “Cap homenatge a la selecció dels opressors! Contra la seva catalanofòbia, demostrem més que mai la nostra força”. "No tribute to the selection of the oppressors! Against their Catalanophobia, we demonstrate our strength more than ever."The organization denounces that "the Spanish police and colonizers attack independent minors and requisition estelades, while they hear chants of 'Puta Catalunya' in the states."
In a statement, the European Democrats, who hold 11 seats in the European Parliament, praised the Luxembourg court's confirmation that the law is compatible with EU law, thus reinforcing the legitimacy of a law that seeks "political and social normalization in Catalonia." The European ruling considers that the amnesty does not violate EU law or affect EU financial interests, and places it within the competence of member states. The European Democratic Party (EDP), a transnational political organization, consists of 20 national member parties and currently holds 11 seats in the European Parliament as part of the Renew Europe group.
"The Court of Justice of the European Union has confirmed that Spain’s Catalan amnesty law is compatible with EU law.
This ruling helps close a conflict marked by tensions and the exile of democratically elected Catalan representatives. We welcome it and we look ahead.
Catalonia’s political future must be decided through democracy, dialogue and respect for its people, and in full respect of the rule of law.
Catalan voices must be fully heard, including in the European Parliament."
In response to two separate requests sent by Spain's Court of Audit and the National High Court for a preliminary ruling, the latter tied to the case in which Puigdemont is under investigation for terrorism, the Luxembourg judges have confirmed the view (source in Spanish) already set out by the institution's Advocate General last November. Even though the law was passed under very particular circumstances, as a condition imposed by the ERC and Junts parties for backing Pedro Sánchez's investiture, and without consulting European courts, Advocate Dean Spielmann already gave the text the green light at the time, arguing it had been approved "in a genuine context of political and social reconciliation" and ruling out that it amounted to a "self-amnesty".
At
dawn on October 15, 1940, Lluís Companys, then President of Catalonia,
was put before a firing squad in the moat of Montjuic Castle in
Barcelona and shot. The detail of soldiers executed the sentence of a
court martial, pursuant to regulations recently imposed by General
Franco's fascist regime. The German Gestapo had handed over to their
fellow Spanish Secret Police only a few months earlier a 58 year old man
who represented a country they wanted to ridicule in defeat and to
teach a lesson for the future. |
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At
dawn on October 15, 1940, Lluís Companys, then President of Catalonia,
was put before a firing squad in the moat of Montjuic Castle in
Barcelona and shot. The detail of soldiers executed the sentence of a
court martial, pursuant to regulations recently imposed by General
Franco's fascist regime. The German Gestapo had handed over to their
fellow Spanish Secret Police only a few months earlier a 58 year old man
who represented a country they wanted to ridicule in defeat and to
teach a lesson for the future.
On
August 13, 1940 began what would become a dark chapter in the history
of Catalunya. The Franco regime was about to perpetrate a unique crime:
the murder of a democratically elected President. Six men stormed the
residence of Lluís Companys, President of the Catalan government, at La
Baule in Brittany. He was captured by four men in German Nazi police
uniforms and two civilians. One of them was Pedro Urraca Redueles,
officially a police attached in the Spanish embassy in Paris, in reality
a spy paid by the Franco regime to serve as liaison with the Gestapo
and the Vichy Regime and to coordinate in part the repression of Spanish
republican exiles in France. On that day Lluís Companys started a
journey that would end tragically two months later, on October 15, 1940,
with his execution in Montjuïc, Barcelona, after an illegal ... read more
Just
after Hitler’s armies had defeated France, Franco's Government took
advantage of the victory of its Nazi allies and began to act against the
Republican exiles in French territory. On the one hand, it tried to
destroy all the organizations that the refugees were maintaining in
exile and to expropriate their properties and documentation; on the
other hand, with the collaboration of Germany, it tried to get various
Republican personalities who were in the "German-Occupied Zone" arrested
and transferred to Spain, while getting others who were in the Vichy
"Free Zone" arrested and extradited ... (read more)
The event organized in Barcelona this Saturday to mark the fifth anniversary of the 1-O, the self-determination referendum held on October 1st, 2017 was attended by 60,000 people. What was most evident was the vast divide separating the thousands of
people who gathered in front of the Arc de Triomf in defence of the
validity of the referendum, and Catalonia's Republican Left (ERC) political leadership that has abandoned the 1-O.
In fact the dismissal of vice president Jordi Puigneró (Junts) by president Pere Aragonès (ERC) only three weeks after the Diada demonstration from which the ERC leadership absented itself, is already clear. The first signs were given at the very start of the event, when it was recalled that the Spanish state's repression had, among other consequences, led to the situation of there being five people in exile who were unable to come personally to Barcelona. The names of Lluís Puig, Clara Ponsatí and Toni Comín, from the Junts space, received loud applause, and this multiplied when the name of Carles Puigdemont was read, prompting a shower of praise and chants of "president". Only one of the figures in exile was criticized: the name of the ERC general secretary, Marta Rovira, provoked jeers among the public.
The ERC space also could not avoid the crowd's derision, a few moments later, when senior ERC figure Carme Forcadell went on stage. During her speech, calls of "traitor" and "out" were heard among the public: "Many of you are angry, disappointed and disillusioned. I understand that and I share it.", she said. But it 's too late. Her party is sinking day by day.
Carles Puigdemont and the ANC get all the warmth
Carles Puigdemont, the president-in-exile, who spoke live via telematic means, was enthusiastically welcomed by an audience that, for long periods, remained silent listening to his words. A tranquility that was broken after several messages from Puigdemont, such as his "immense thanks" to the citizens who made the 1-O possible, his warning that those "delusional undertakers" should give up any hope that the people will forget about independence, and his defence that "there is no need to repeat" any referendum because the 2017 one is still valid, as opposed to the "clarity" proposal of the Catalan president, Pere Aragonès. Even his appeal for the unity of the independence movement was well received: "The only table to which we must chain ourselves is the dialogue table between the siblings of Junts, ERC, the CUP, Òmnium and the Assembly". Unlike the other speakers who spoke along these lines, Puigdemont was applauded.
The Catalan National Assembly (ANC), as well, was welcomed with open arms. In her speech, Dolors Feliu saw how her strategy, marked by the desire to put an end to the dialogue table with the state and start a new democratic attack in the short term, was strongly applauded. Her criticism of the "immobility" of the parties was warmly received by the public, as well as her call to "open new paths". Thus, the ANC president returned to the threat of a early election and a civil list, bypassing the parties, if the Catalan government does not comply with its pro-independence mandate.
Appart from the Barcelona's event there were meetings all over Catalonia and a rally in Girona where hundreds burned the ERC's effigy portrait and a Spanish banner.
On Friday, it was announced that the Elna City Council would go to trial following the decision of the councilor plenum to modify the municipal regulations to recognize the right of councilors to use Catalan, as long as the interventions are fully translated into French. The Intermunicipal Union for the Promotion of Occitan and Catalan Languages (SIOCCAT), that there are at least fifteen northern Catalan municipalities that will also introduce Catalan into the municipal regulations. If nothing else, there are Banys and Palaldà (Vallespir), Espirà de Conflent, Estagell (Rosselló), Formiguera (Capcir), la Menera (Vallespir), Tor de França (Fenolleda), Pesillà de la Ribera (Rosselló), Portvendres (Rossello), Ralleu (Conflent), Sant Andreu de Sureda (Rossello), Sureda (Rossello), Tarerac (Conflent), Trillà (Fenolleda) and Vingrau (Rossello).
Some of these councils have already received a threatening letter from the prefect demanding that they back down, and, according to SIOCCAT sources, some councils have already given up. Rodrigue Furcy, prefect of the Department of the Eastern Pyrenees, justifies the ban on Catalan by adding that article 2 of the French constitution says that the language of the republic is French. He also argues that French courts have ruled several times that plenaries in a language other than French are illegal.
This Sunday, September 18, an in-person Plenary meeting of the Assembly of Representatives was held in Canet de Rosselló, Northern Catalonia (under French rule). Respecting the established Agenda, the General and Operating Regulations were debated and approved with 93 votes in favor.
Spokesman Pere Cardús spoke on behalf of the report that he has drawn up on the General and Operating Regulations of the Council for the Republic. His intervention has opened the process of debate and amendments. Cardús recalled that the Assembly of Representatives "does not aim to make codes per se but to make an independent State in the form of a Republic". Cardús explained that the Regulation "is a facilitating document, made for understanding and cooperation" and that it will help the Council "to understand us and not to watch over us".
The speaker explained that the Regulation is a text that must also facilitate "a system of understanding between the Government, Local Councils and the Assembly of Representatives" and that it must allow "to draw up a joint strategy for all the bodies of the Council for the Republic ". During the debate on the amendments, the speakers convinced the Government and ended up withdrawing the amendment on the name of the Council. So, the change in the nomenclature of the republican institution has been approved: the Council for the Republic is now called the Council of the Republic. The Government has asked for a special speaking turn to warn that this change will be, in logistical terms, progressive in the coming months.
The legitimation steps for a Local Council, regulated in the Framework Document for the Impulse of "Local Councils for the Republic", are as follows:
- first, transversal people from a locality/village/district come together and create a driving group
- afterwards, they are in charge of deploying the Local Council in their local area (networks, territory, local institutions...).
- once the Local Council is present in the locality, an open process is carried out with the citizens and a democratic board is chosen with the tools that the Council makes available to them.
The local Councils for the Republic that have already signed the "Letter of Commitment" drawn up by the Council for the Republic, which determines, among other issues, the political objectives and purposes of the local Councils and their principles of operation, will receive it signed and in hand by the President of the Council, Carles Puigdemont, at this event.
