Spain: for the Diada, the mobilization of separatists undermined by the pandemic and divisions
Catalan separatists demonstrate during the Diada, in Barcelona, on September 11, 2020. REUTERS / Nacho Doce
Text by: RFI Follow
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In Barcelona, despite the pandemic, the Catalan separatists organized several demonstrations this Friday, September 11 for the traditional Diada, the Catalan national day, respecting the safety distances and other security measures.
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With our correspondent in Barcelona,
Elise Gazengel
For the first time since 2012, the traditional Catalan party,
the Diada
, did not gather a compact crowd in Barcelona on September 11.
Covid obliges, the independence organizers preferred to organize mini-gatherings in a hundred symbolic places.
According to the organizers, who controlled access to these gatherings, only 59,500 people participated, far from the hundreds of thousands present in previous editions.
This demonstration, which has gathered up to 1.5 million people in recent years, has been maintained despite everything.
"
As long as we are not independent ...
"
In the Catalan metropolis, University Square, María Josep, a student, admits having hesitated before coming: “
At the beginning, I thought it was not necessary, but afterwards, seeing that there are distances, freezing, taking the temperature, that's good.
And then, it's necessary because, as long as we are not independent, we will not stop
.
"
Measures were aimed at stemming the controversy criticizing the continuation of these demonstrations while the pandemic is hitting the country hard.
And despite a gloomy atmosphere, for demonstrators like Andreu Ballbé, the independence cause is worth mobilizing.
“
It's sad, that's for sure, but if we had had a big political demonstration, we would have destroyed everything.
On the other hand, if we did nothing, it was worse,
”he said.
The separatists, in power but divided
Day of the regional festival, the Diada has since 2012 become a show of force for the separatist movement.
Still in power at the regional level, the latter is undermined by divisions over the strategy to follow since the failure of the 2017 secession attempt. Former President Carles Puigdemont, who fled to Belgium, advocates confrontation with Madrid while his ex-number 2 Oriol Junqueras, currently in prison, is in favor of dialogue with the government.
These tensions have increased since Regional President Quim Torra announced early elections in January, the date of which has not yet been set due to the pandemic.
Quim Torra was sentenced
last year by the courts to a year and a half of ineligibility for disobeying the electoral authorities by putting up a pro-independence poster at the seat of the regional government.
The country's highest court, the Supreme Court, is due to rule on his appeal next week.
If this sentence is confirmed, Quim Torra will lose his post of regional president, which risks causing further turmoil in the region.
Between pandemic and division of the independence camp, this Diada will have given a bitter taste to secessionists.
Many hope that 2021 will be a renewal for the movement.
►Also listen: La "Diada", annual meeting of Catalan separatists
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La "Diada", annual meeting of Catalan separatists