Cordiality and good manners presided over the meeting between José Montilla and Artur Mas in La Vanguardia. Smiles, some complicity, and no reproaches. They are politicians from before the current political polarization. Not for nothing, as they made sure to remind, despite their…

On the 50th anniversary of the Onze de Setembre of 1976, La Vanguardia brought together this week the former presidents of the Generalitat José Montilla and Artur Mas to talk about what the first authorized Diada after Franco’s death meant, and about the challenges of today’s Catalonia.

The president of Òmnium Cultural, Xavier Antich, has made an urgent call to Catalanist, sovereigntist, and independentist forces to articulate a “broad, majority, and radically democratic civic front” capable of confronting the threat of the far right and rebuilding social hegemony in Catalonia within the framework of the political event held by the entity this noon on the occasion of the Diada.

Although far from the massive marches of the procés period, the independence movement showed strength again this Friday and was able to gather 57,000 people in the three demonstrations held in Barcelona, Girona, and Amposta –16,000 more than last year– under the slogan “Hi soc. Hi som. Independència” (I am here. We are here. Independence). But beyond the numbers, the Assemblea Nacional Catalana (ANC), the main organizer of the event, took advantage of the Diada to look ahead to 2027. A year full of ingredients that could act as a catalyst for a movement that in recent years has been more distinguished by its internal struggles than by its strategic unity: the tenth anniversary of the 1-O referendum, the expected first autumn without “exiles” since then, and also a very likely government of the Partido Popular and Vox in Madrid.

La Diada of September 11 usually becomes a political thermometer. It not only serves to assess the mood and relationships among the various souls of Catalan nationalism, but also measures Catalonia’s position in a global context. If the first Diada of democracy, that of 1976 in Sant Boi, served to demand freedom and democracy, now the context is marked by problems in the most basic services – education, healthcare, mobility, housing… – and the rise of the far right. Faced with the risk that extremisms may boil over in this broth, the Catalan Executive claims coexistence, plurality, and the democratic commitment that prevailed 50 years ago.

The Supreme Court judge who instructed the procés case, Pablo Llarena, has yet to definitively close the matter regarding former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont. The magistrate opposed applying the Amnesty law to the post-convergent leader, understanding that he personally profited from organizing the October 1, 2017 referendum and therefore is excluded from this legal benefit. Legal sources explained yesterday, in the discussions following the opening of the Judicial Year, that the magistrate will review the application of the statute of limitations as soon as the Constitutional Court evaluates the interpretation made by the instructor. His thesis, that the leaders of the procés enriched themselves by organizing the October 1 referendum because they did so with public money and not personal funds, is the same one upheld by the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court regarding those already convicted, such as former vice president Oriol Junqueras who requested to be granted amnesty and have his disqualification penalty canceled. All of them appealed to the Constitutional Court, which on the 22nd will review the first of the appeals for protection.

“The Kingdom of Morocco refuses to be used as a pre-electoral political pawn, nor will it accept being the scapegoat in political score-settling” in Spain, warned today the Moroccan Ministry of Foreign Affairs.