AFP, Barcelona :
Tens of thousands of Catalans are expected to protest on Sunday to demand their region speed up its drive to break away from Spain and form its own country.
After winning a clear majority in Catalonia’s regional parliament last year, secessionist parties approved a plan to achieve independence in mid-2017 but have since become divided by ideological differences and little progress has been made.
Separatists hope that people will come out en masse in various towns and cities of the wealthy, northeastern region on September 11 when it marks its national day. “I encourage you to fill the streets,” regional president Carles Puigdemont said in a video released ahead of the demonstration.
“We have to show that we are ready to finish this process that will convert Catalonia into an independent state,” he added. His government is walking a tightrope after the pro-independence coalition ruling Catalonia broke down in June as its most radical component-the tiny, anti-capitalist CUP party-refused to back the proposed budget for 2016.
Without the CUP and its 10 parliamentary seats, Puigdemont has been reduced to running a minority government with just 62 seats in the 135-seat Catalan regional assembly.
As a result, he faces a confidence vote in the parliament on September 28, just weeks after the planned demonstrations across the region.
While the CUP has said it will once again support him, there are still deep divisions over how to put in place an independence plan that acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has warned is a “hugely serious threat” to Spain.
Since 2012, major demonstrations in favour of independence have been held in Catalonia every year on its national day, or Diada, on September 11.
In 2013, hundreds of thousands of Catalans held hands in a 400-kilometre (250-mile) human chain across the region while in 2014 demonstrators formed a giant “V” for “victory” in Barcelona, the capital of Catalonia.
This year demonstrators will be dispersed in five different towns and cities to march under the slogan: “Ready. Onwards Catalan Republic.”
Organisers say the goal is to show the independence movement is spread out across Catalonia, a region of some 7.5 million people that boasts its own language and customs.
But opponents of independence argue that organisers are dispersing the annual protest this year to try to mask the fact that turnout will be lower than before.
Tens of thousands of Catalans are expected to protest on Sunday to demand their region speed up its drive to break away from Spain and form its own country.
After winning a clear majority in Catalonia’s regional parliament last year, secessionist parties approved a plan to achieve independence in mid-2017 but have since become divided by ideological differences and little progress has been made.
Separatists hope that people will come out en masse in various towns and cities of the wealthy, northeastern region on September 11 when it marks its national day. “I encourage you to fill the streets,” regional president Carles Puigdemont said in a video released ahead of the demonstration.
“We have to show that we are ready to finish this process that will convert Catalonia into an independent state,” he added. His government is walking a tightrope after the pro-independence coalition ruling Catalonia broke down in June as its most radical component-the tiny, anti-capitalist CUP party-refused to back the proposed budget for 2016.
Without the CUP and its 10 parliamentary seats, Puigdemont has been reduced to running a minority government with just 62 seats in the 135-seat Catalan regional assembly.
As a result, he faces a confidence vote in the parliament on September 28, just weeks after the planned demonstrations across the region.
While the CUP has said it will once again support him, there are still deep divisions over how to put in place an independence plan that acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has warned is a “hugely serious threat” to Spain.
Since 2012, major demonstrations in favour of independence have been held in Catalonia every year on its national day, or Diada, on September 11.
In 2013, hundreds of thousands of Catalans held hands in a 400-kilometre (250-mile) human chain across the region while in 2014 demonstrators formed a giant “V” for “victory” in Barcelona, the capital of Catalonia.
This year demonstrators will be dispersed in five different towns and cities to march under the slogan: “Ready. Onwards Catalan Republic.”
Organisers say the goal is to show the independence movement is spread out across Catalonia, a region of some 7.5 million people that boasts its own language and customs.
But opponents of independence argue that organisers are dispersing the annual protest this year to try to mask the fact that turnout will be lower than before.
