A million official ballot papers for the 1st October referendum have arrived this morning at the historical building of the University of Barcelona, in the centre of the city, and are now being handed out to everyone who passes. This was announced by the president of pro-independence organisation Òmnium Cultural, Jordi Cuixart, during his speech starting off the events of the "Marathon for Democracy", being celebrated simultaneously this Sunday in the squares of many Catalan towns and cities.
In Barcelona, the central event is taking place in plaça Universitat. There are workshops to create banners for the referendum, printers to print out posters and a call has been made for the public to then go out and put up posters all over the city. The event gathered hundreds of people in the square from 11am.
Ens acaba d'arribar 1 MILIÓ de paperetes del #referèndum a l'Edifici Històric de la UB! Des d'aquí les repartim arreu! #caputxinada2017 pic.twitter.com/0whvMQfjvG
— Unis x the Republic (@unisxrepublica) 24 of September 2017
Translation: We've just received 1 MILLION referendum voting slips at the Historic Building of the University of Barcelona! From here we'll share them around!
With the help of students who have already spent two nights sleeping at the university, the entities have started to hand out voting slips around the square with the chant "¿Dónde están las papeletas? ¿Las papeletas dónde están?" ("Where are the voting slips? The voting slips, where are they?"). At the same time, activists and students started handing out the rest in different squares around the city, so that a million members of the public can take their voting slip with them on 1st October.
Sortim a repartir-les!!! pic.twitter.com/kYakaQI0s1
— Unis x the Republic (@unisxrepublica) 24 of September 2017
More permanent demonstrations
Cuixart, apart from announcing the new ballot papers, again called for a "permanent demonstration" after the Public Prosecutor Office had mentioned him by name for making the same call a few days ago. Named alongside him in that document was Jordi Sánchez, president of the ANC (Catalan National Assembly). "Let no one stay at home. Everyone to the streets," he said.
Cuixart asked that "no one get it wrong, our most dangerous weapons are voting papers, ballot boxes, banners and posters". He gave thanks to "all the democrats of the Spanish state" that are supporting to the referendum. "Francoism couldn't and they won't be able to now," he said.
Cuixart closed his speech announcing that the parcels of voting slips had just arrived and he called on the attendees to hand them out around Catalonia "the voting slips of 'yes' and 'no'".
Operation Tumult
The speaker of the Catalan Parliament, Carme Forcadell, was the other surprise of the event, as she wasn't expected to attend. Forcadell wanted to thank the young people who had occupied the university and the high-ranking government officials arrested this week. "You were our support, without you we wouldn't have come out."
Forcadell accused the state of carrying out an "Operation Tumult" to charge independence supporters with sedition (in Spanish law, sedition requires a "public, tumultuous" uprising) and the PP (Popular Party) government of acting "just like the Franco dictatorship". "They want us in prison but they won't achieve it because there will be no violence here," she said. "See you at the ballot boxes!"
"Like dictators"
Jordi Sánchez, the president of ANC, meanwhile, accused the state of "having their foot on the accelerator to attempt to prevent the vote". "They've acted via the back door; Rajoy didn't have the bravery nor the honour to go to the Congress, and they're doing it all from their offices in the ministries, hidden from the Spanish people, because what they've done is a genuine coup d'état," he said.
"They do and undo as they want, as dictators do, without respecting the will of the people and the normative framework", he said, in reference to the state taking direct control of the Mossos d'Esquadra Catalan police. According to Sánchez, "they're deconstructing the democratic state and the state of the rule of law".
The president of the ANC also said that the state "is very nervous" because they've spent months "searching for what they haven't found". "They've invested thousands and thousands of hours in looking for the best guarded democratic treasure: the ballot boxes! And they haven't found them! And they haven't found them because when a people want to preserve the treasure of democracy there is no Civil Guard, nor public prosecutor nor judge that can discover this treasure", he said, guaranteeing that there will be ballot boxes in the polling stations on 1st October.