In the extraordinary year marked by the coronavirus, the manifestation of September 11 will not be ruled out in the Catalan countries. The Catalan National Assembly, in collaboration with Omnium Cultural and AMI, has completed a day that allows compliance with the PROCICAT safety protocol. The mobilization will have a virtual and face-to-face section, and it is clear that it will not offer the massive images that we have seen in the last decade.

On the one hand, the ANC has denounced “the economic and social discrimination that penalizes Catalonia and that harms citizenship on a daily basis”, so it will be mobilized in 107 concentration centers, with a total of 48,000 people in 82 municipalities of the Principality. These points will directly signal to the institutions of the Spanish State, such as the city of Barcelona, the Banco de España, the Plaza Cataluña, the headquarters of the Spanish Social Security, the crossing of Calle Aragón and the Paseo de la Gracia and the stations of Sants and San Andreu Arenal. The central political event will take place in Barcelona, at the headquarters of the Spanish Tax Agency, in the Plaza de Letamendi.

Other locations will include courts, RENFE stations, the offices of the Spanish State Occupation Public Service (SEPE), the social security offices and the offices of the tax agency. However, in some cases squares or avenues near these points have been selected for health reasons.

People who are unable to register or do not want to participate for health reasons have another way to participate: The ANC has called for everyone to go out to the balconies at 17:14 hours, but has not given more details.

Security measures

Civil Protection of the Generalitat recalled yesterday that demonstrations are subject to security measures, such as the mask, the distance of demonstrators of 1.5 metres and access controls. At the same time, it recommends that people over 60 years of age, students and the chronically ill should not be accompanied.

The ANC, aware of the criticisms which cast doubt on the organisation of the concentration, has complied with the security measures. All mobilisations will be static and the demonstrators must at all times maintain a distance of two metres. We will follow the pattern of manifestation that has been seen in more parts of the world and that guarantees the absence of distance and congestion between the manifestations.

On the other hand, the claim will also be disseminated on the network, which will focus on the website Red Independència. The aim of this initiative is to create a large virtual network that shows “how independence is implemented in the country and the collective capacity of people to make great changes.” The money obtained will be used to support sectors affected by the pandemic, such as culture, health or social fields.

A party without members of the government

All the members of the Quim Torra Government have refused to go to the physical mobilizations organized by the ANC this Sunday. In recent weeks, some members of the government have expressed doubts about the desirability of mobilizing, in the context of the pandemic. The Secretary of Public Health, Josep Maria Argimon, made a clear note to the ANC: “It’s not right to mobilize.”

In an interview at VilaWeb, ANC President Elisenda Paluzie responded to the government: "We didn't invite them!" This year, the only concentration that is carried out by invitation is the central act and is very small. There will be less than two hundred people and, as we did last year, the only guests are the representatives of social organizations.”