The permanent mobilization was on the table after 1-O and the subsequent great demonstration, but the idea ended up being aborted
Outstanding leaders of the call ‘staff’ of process consulted by El Periódico, of the Prensa Ibérica group, point out with determination a key date, definitive and of historical significance. It is not the referendum, nor the sterile proclamation of independence on October 27, 2017, but another day, Number 3when tens of thousands of Catalans took to the streets to protest police violence deployed during the day of the consultation, in the form of a general strike and after a very forceful speech by Felipe VI.
Jordi Sànchez, then leader of the ANC, and Jordi Cuixart, who directed Òmnium Cultural, planned in detail a permanent mobilization. That is to say, to transform that 3-O demonstration into a perpetual concentration in the street on Passeig de Gràcia in Barcelona.
To understand the significance of that proposal and its subsequent resolution, we must go back a few weeks. The members of the so-called ‘general staff’ spent months preparing the referendum, outside the Government, in secret, in a decentralized manner and looking for plans a, b and c. But, in parallel, there were debates about what to do the day after if the query was successful.
From these debates it can be deduced that many, including the then president and vice president, Carles Puigdemont and Oriol Junqueras, they firmly believed that the success of the call would make it possible to negotiate a legal referendum with the state. Others, on the other hand, argued that if the ballot boxes could be placed, there were only two ways to manage success: a resistance mobilization that would force the proclamation of independence or an immediate electoral call with a single electoral list such as that of Junts pel Sí para transform the potential of the referendum into a show of pro-independence force in the institutions.
It is in the first of the options that the plans of the two ‘Jordis’ must be framed. The mobilization and general strike of day 3 -it is only necessary to remember the chronicles and recover the images- was nourished by a general discontent and outrage that went beyond the pro-independence perimeter, given that police violence turned the consultation into a problem of democratic order.
Why did it stop?
For all this, Sànchez and Cuixart planned to join the resistance. They did so on the premise that a great international victory had been achieved on October 1 and that there was still no immediate decision on the proclamation of independence – they had to formally wait for the end of the recount, according to the referendum law later annulled-. For this reason, it was considered appropriate to take action, in a very specific context: the emotional and political tension that weighed on the two political leaders of the Government.
Thus, five years ago it was a key day, but there was no permanent mobilization. The proposal did not go ahead. Who stopped her? Sectors close to Junts point to Junqueras and the communication adviser Oriol Soler, but other direct knowledge of these decisions attribute both the ERC leader and the president a decision that was based, they add, on the fear of consequences in terms of violence and conflict that this indefinite mobilization could generate
What would have happened? That will already form part of the hypotheses. But what is certain is that leading actors in that operation now assume in private, with more serenity, that this was a serious mistake, which must also be placed within the framework of a more than tense situation, because the ‘general staff’ did not already had decisive power after the referendum. So the weight of responsibility was transferred to the Government.
It is easy to describe the difficulties and ups and downs of the decisions of the pro-independence Executive from October 1 to 27, 2017. It is enough to remember that mediation was attempted, that independence was proclaimed on the 10th only to be frozen seconds later due to an alleged foreign negotiation, which an attempt was made to call elections and that, finally, it was decided to proclaim the disconnection knowing that it would be a failed action.