Puigdemont: ‘We are all being tried and thus we will show our outrage’

‘Many of us feel on trial today and thus we will show our outrage’ stated Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, in his institutional speech this Monday before former Catalan President, Artur Mas, former vice-president, Joana Ortega and former Catalan Minister for Education, Irene Rigau, faced trial for allowing the 9-N symbolic vote on independence in 2014. ‘A country which is able to hold a consultation such as the 9-N has a healthier democracy than that of a country which puts on trial those who made it possible’, he added. According to Puigdemont, the 9-N responded to a ‘compromise between the citizens and their representatives’ and he described it as ‘a joyful day with a strong democratic component, which was full of hope’. The Catalan President also accused those who are putting Mas, Ortega and Rigau on trial of ‘prosecuting ideas’ and warned that the people’s dignity ‘will be defended with loyalty by the accused’ who will be ‘standing, rather than bowed’.

After his speech, Puigdemont left ‘Palau de la Generalitat’ along with Mas, Ortega and Rigau, the Parliament’s President, Carme Forcadell, the Catalan executive and representatives from the previous Government, as well as members of those parties which openly supported the 9-N. They all joined those whom have been summonsed on their way to court, walking and supported by thousands of citizens who filled the surroundings of Barcelona’s High Court, gathered together by Catalonia’s main pro-independence associations. ‘We Love democracy’ and ‘We are all 9-N’ were some of the mottos which appeared on the displayed banners along the way.

The group stopped at several iconic point of the city centre on its way to Barcelona’s High Court. One of the most symbolic was ‘El Fossar de les Moreres’ (the Mulberry Trees’ Grave) in Barcelona’s Born neighbourhood, a small square built over a mass grave where defenders of Barcelona in 1714 were buried.