Biodun.BBC: Ines Arrimadas

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Tuesday, September 11, 2018

BREAKING: One million Catalans rally for independence in Barcelona

September 11, 2018 21H:28 GMT/UTC/ZULU TIME

by Elodie Bagnol and Biodun Iginla, France24, Barcelona

Latest update : 2018-09-11

Around one million Catalans rallied in Barcelona on Tuesday, banging drums and blowing whistles in a show of support for independence nearly a year after a failed attempt to break away from Spain.

Wearing coral-red T-shirts and waving the red, yellow and blue Catalan separatist flag, a sea of protesters gathered for the rally on Catalonia's "national day" which commemorates Barcelona's fall to troops loyal to Spain's King Philip V in 1714.

The annual "Diada" holiday has since 2012 been used to stage a massive rally calling for secession for the wealthy northeastern region with its own distinct language.

But this year's event had particular significance as a test of strength after a referendum last October 1, and the Catalan parliament's unilateral declaration of independence on October 27, all came to naught.

Demonstrators climbed on each others shoulders to form human towers, a Catalan tradition, while others carried yellow and black signs that read "Free Catalan political prisoners now", a reference to Catalan separatist leaders in jail awaiting trial over last year's independence bid.

"I am outraged ... the political prisoners have to be released now!, said Santi Noe, 54, who came to the rally from his farm in El Maresme near Barcelona on his green tractor, one of dozens of tractors at the event.

>> New Catalan president Torra names jailed, exiled leaders to government

City police said on Twitter that around one million people took part, a similar amount to last year's protest.

Organisers said they had sold over 200,000 coral-red T-shirts -- the colour used in the ties used to secure the ballot boxes during last year's contested referendum.

At the start of the rally demonstrators knocked down a symbolic wall decorated with separatist symbols, a metaphor for the power of the people to overcome obstacles and achieve independence.

'No plan'

Catalan president Quim Torra said the rally marks the start of a "mass mobilisation". Further protests are planned for an anniversary of last year's banned referendum, which was marred by police violence, and on the anniversary of the failed declaration of independence.

In a televised address on Monday, he said his government was "committed to implementing the republic" Catalans voted for in the referendum.

But Oriol Bartomeus, politics professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, said that "listening to the speeches of the separatist leaders, it seems like there is no plan."

Opposition parties complain that separatists have transformed the "Diada" into a holiday which excludes the half of the Catalan population that does not favour independence.

"Today, more than half of Catalonia cannot celebrate anything," said Ines Arrimadas, head of the centre-right, anti-independence Ciudadanos party in Catalonia.

>> Torra: Catalonia set to vote for hardline separatist president

A closely-watched Catalan government poll in July showed 46.7 percent of Catalans want an independent state, just ahead of 44.9 percent who were opposed.

Separatist parties won a slim majority of seats in the Catalan parliament in a December election, even though they captured just 47.5 percent of the popular vote.

"On a day like today, we Catalans should celebrate our national day and not just a call for independence that is shared by less than half of the population," Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Borrel, who is Catalan, said in Strasbourg.

Separatist divisions

There are also growing divisions in separatist ranks -- between those who want to provoke a clash with Madrid and those seeking a more conciliatory approach.

"If a separatist is so naive or stupid to believe he can impose independence on the 50 percent of Catalans who are not (separatists), it's clear that they are mistaken," Joan Tarda, a lawmaker for separatist party ERC in the Spanish parliament, said last week.

The ERC has a taken softer approach than its ally in the regional government -- former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont's Together for Catalonia.

Puigdemont was sacked by Madrid after last year's independence declaration and fled to Belgium.

Spain's conservative prime minister Mariano Rajoy then imposed direct rule on Catalonia and called early elections.

Rajoy's successor, socialist Pedro Sanchez, was catapulted to power in June with the support of separatist parties.

Sanchez has offered the region a referendum on greater autonomy, but this was rejected by Torra, who insists Madrid must allow a legally binding independence referendum for Catalonia's 7.5 million people.

Date created : 2018-09-11

Thursday, December 21, 2017

Ines Arrimadas, thorn in side of Catalan separatists

22 December 2017 - 04H06 GMT/UTC/ZULU TIME

by Elodie Bagnol and Biodun Iginla, France24, Barcelona

BARCELONA -

Ines Arrimadas, the leader in Catalonia of the pro-unity Ciudadanos party which made huge gains but fell short of winning a crucial vote on Thursday, has seen her relentless attacks against her rivals' independence drive bear fruit.

The charismatic 36-year-old has in recent years been one of the fiercest critics of the secessionist project in media interviews and during debates in Catalonia's regional parliament.

She has blasted the separatists' bid to break Catalonia away from Spain as a "coup against democracy" and accused the region's axed president, Carles Puigdemont, of having embarked on a "Kafkian" process and of not listening to opponents.

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"You don't like to show your face, you don't like to talk, you don't like to debate, you don't like to negotiate with anyone who is not like you," she said during a debate in the Catalan parliament just before it voted to declare independence in October.

- Meteoric rise -

Born in Jerez de la Frontera in the southern province of Cadiz, Arrimadas has a degree in law and business administration. The youngest of five children, she moved to Catalonia more than a decade ago to work as a lawyer in the private sector.

Her life changed in 2010 after she attended a rally of centrist party Ciudadanos, founded just four years earlier to fight Catalan nationalism and corruption.

She joined the party the following year and quickly rose through its ranks.

As the leader of the opposition in the Catalan parliament since 2015, Arrimadas -- who is fluent in Catalan and speaks English and French and describes herself as shy -- has shown her knack for communication.

She has branded her rivals' secessionist rhetoric as "monothematic" and their nationalism "exclusive".

Her quick reflexes were on show during her final rally before the election in Nou Barris, a working class Barcelona neighbourhood.

As she started to speak, people further away started banging pans in protest against Ciudadanos.

"There are others who don't want us to talk but we are going to talk loudly at the ballot box," she said to cheers and shouts of "presidenta, presidenta!".

Married to a Catalan former politician from the separatist camp, Xavier Cima, Arrimadas presents herself as representative of all Catalans -- including those like herself who migrated to the wealthy region from other parts of Spain in search of a brighter future.

- 'Rigorous' -

Arrimadas's Ciudadanos won more than a million votes in Thursday's poll, its best ever result.

The party came out on top in terms of vote count, but was defeated in terms of seats by the three separatist lists.

Still, Arrimadas celebrated the result not just for her party, but for the anti-independence camp.

"The nationalists will never again be able to speak in the name of all Catalonia. We are all Catalonia," she said in a speech to supporters after the result was announced.

Britain's The Guardian newspaper likens Arrimadas to French President Emmanuel Macron for successfully carving out a centrist path in a country long dominated by bipartisan politics.

Former French prime minister Manuel Valls, who was born in Barcelona and has taken an active role in the campaign against Catalan separatism, has said he "admires" her speeches.

But her fierce defence of Spanish unity has also won her many detractors. The former speaker of the Catalan parliament, Nuria de Gispert, once said Arrimadas should return to Cadiz.

A popular comedy programme on the Catalan public television network, Polonia, has portrayed her as a photogenic but vacuous Barbie doll, the "perfect candidate" that spews out anti-separatist slogans.

"I receive daily the most spectacular hate and affection, in equal parts," Arrimadas said during an interview with private television Telecinco last month.

She has been a supporter of FC Barcelona, a symbol of Catalan culture, since she was a teenager and would cover her binders in high school with pictures of the club's former star player and coach Pep Guardiola, a fierce defender of independence.

Andres Rodriguez Benot, who teaches international law at the Pablo de Olavide University in Seville, remembers her as a "brilliant" yet "reserved" student there.

He said when a group of students falsely accused her of forging language certificates in order to obtain a scholarship, Arrimadas reported the incident, and the university sanctioned the guilty students.

"She is a rigorous person who respects legality," he said. "With her, you can forget about the word corruption."

Biodun Iginla, BBC News