They went down hundreds of thousands in the streets of central Barcelona. On 26 October, separatist activists demonstrated in a new mass demonstration after the violence that followed the condemnation of separatist leaders for trying to secede from Spain.
According to the municipal police, some 350,000 people responded to the call of the two large associations Catalan National Assembly and Cultural Omnium, to march near the regional parliament.
"We are demonstrating peacefully, we are not violent contrary to what the Spanish media say," said Manuela Muñoz, 57, employed in a chemical plant.
"Freedom for political prisoners!"
In the early evening, several thousand of them, responding to the call of the more radical Republican Defense Committees (CRD), were gathered near the police headquarters, facing a cordon of anti-riot police.
Waving independence flags, they shouted "freedom for political prisoners!", Or "outside the occupation forces" when they saw police officers.
This is the first major event in Barcelona since the unrest that has left some 600 injured in Catalonia. Events that followed the Supreme Court's conviction of nine separatist leaders for up to 13 years in prison.
On the evening of the sentence, on Monday 14 October, around 10,000 people tried to paralyze Barcelona airport, clashing with police who prevented them from entering.
Events held from Tuesday to Thursday in the main cities of this region of 7.5 million inhabitants then degenerated into urban guerrilla scenes.
The tension has subsided since, a few thousand students demonstrated in calm on Friday, against "the police repression".
"Independence is not Catalonia"
Role reversal, Sunday: the street will be anti-independence. They want to "say" enough to the violence that [we] have experienced and the confrontation "sought by the separatist regional government, told AFP the president of the Societat civil catalana association, Fernando Sánchez Costa.
Two large marches of the "silent majority" opposed to independence were organized by his association after the secession attempt of 2017.
"This is an important message for Catalonia, Spain and the world, where we often confuse independence and Catalonia", while "we are the majority", he said.
Members of the Spanish Socialist Government, including Foreign Minister, Catalan Josep Borrell, the next head of European diplomacy, will join Sunday's march.
Elected representatives of the right-wing opposition will also take part in the rally. They ask the government for exceptional measures against the violence in Catalonia, ahead of the legislative elections of November 10. Chief Executive Pedro Sánchez refuses so far.
In Madrid, the head of the extreme right-wing party Vox, Santiago Abascal, denounced Saturday in front of thousands of his supporters waving Spanish flags "the betrayal of the Socialists" in the face of "criminal separatism".
His party gained ground in parliament by winning 24 out of 350 seats in the April legislative elections, but several recent polls make it the third largest force in parliament in the next election.
Having come to power in June 2018 partly thanks to the votes of the Catalan separatists, Pedro Sanchez had begun a dialogue with them that quickly ended.
With AFP