Catalan parties ERC and PDeCAT have taken advantage of an official visit by the president of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa to the Spanish Congress to denounce the imprisonment of pro-independence Catalan leaders and the trial over last year's independence referendum. The symbol chosen was the yellow carnation: the colour being a symbol of support for the prisoners and the flower for the Carnation Revolution which ended the Estado Novo dictatorship. The act comes a week after Spanish justice minister Rafael Catalá said the term "political prisoners" is "profoundly offensive".
Originally they had planned to unfurl a banner, but in the end only Gabriel Rufián (ERC) held up a poster bearing the phrase "release political prisoners". After Rebelo de Sousa's speech, as speaker Ana Pastor formally closed the session, the pro-independence politicians sang a song popularised during the Carnation Revolution, Grândola, Vila Morena.
Denunciem i denunciem : tenim #presespolítiques #presospolítics i persones a l’exili. El groc per denunciar, els clavells per recordar que les revolucions són possibles #viscalallibertat pic.twitter.com/2Y8m1WE6MW
— Ester Capella Farré (@estercapella) 17 de abril de 2018
Translation: We denounce and we denounce: we have political prisoners and people in exile. The yellow to condemn, the carnations to recall that revolutions are possible. Long live freedom.
El grup de diputats al Congrés i senadors han rebut al president de Portugal amb clavells grocs per reclamar la #LlibertatPresosPolítics pic.twitter.com/pNwAfpZrxz
— Partit Demòcrata (@Pdemocratacat) 17 de abril de 2018
The group of Congress deputies and senators have received the president of Portugal with yellow carnations to call for the release [of the] political prisoners.