This September 11 marks five decades since the first celebration of the National Day of Catalonia after Francoism, which was held in Sant Boi de Llobregat. The commemorative event prepared by the Generalitat and the City Council of that city ended up becoming an act of reivindication of the integrative spirit of that Diada, at a time when the rise of the far right certifies a questioning of the democratic system. “What strengthens Catalonia is not closing itself off,” said President Salvador Illa in his speech.
The event, held in the Can Massallera auditorium, ended with the intervention of the head of the Government, who stated that on that day in 1976 “plural Catalanism became aware of itself.” “There was not a single flag nor a single party. There was a will that could not fit into acronyms, that of ending 40 years of dictatorship and making way for democracy,” he said.
In the search for that “same democratic horizon,” Illa continued, there were senyeres, but also Andalusian and Basque flags at the Sant Boi event. A scene of plurality from which, he added, lessons must be learned. “Rights do not fall from the sky, they must be fought for. And no conquest is irreversible. Let us not trivialize what we have achieved, the institutions and the democratic system we have,” the president requested. “What strengthens Catalonia is not closing itself off,” he concluded.
In a similar vein, Miquel Roca spoke, who then addressed the crowd as a representative of the Consell de Forces Polítiques de Catalunya. Later one of the fathers of the 1978 Constitution, he recalled passages from his speech, drawing a certain parallel with the threat posed by the rise of the far right. “For our struggle, Catalonia needs us all. Unity in the fight for freedom, with the integrative message of a diverse Catalonia that needs everyone to face the recovered freedom that presented us with a future at that time and now,” he said.
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During the event, attended among others by the president of the Parliament, Josep Rull, the leader of Junts in the Parliament, Mònica Sales, and former president José Montilla, the mayor of Sant Boi, Lluïsa Moret, also spoke. The socialist leader called to face the “involutionary and authoritarian discourses” with “dialogue, a culture of agreement and respect,” values she said made the 1976 Diada possible.
The commemoration began with the broadcast that Ràdio Barcelona made of the 1976 Diada in the nearby Plaça de Catalunya. It was presented by journalists Àngels Barceló and Manuel Campo Vidal, who in turn was one of the organizers of the first major demonstration organized in Catalonia after Franco’s death. The veteran reporter, in fact, explained that it was his idea to take the event to Baix Llobregat, after the Civil Governor refused to authorize it to be held in the Catalan capital.
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