The Catalan Government and the Parliament of Catalonia are jointly organizing the institutional act of the National Day of Catalonia, which this year has as its central theme the 50th anniversary of Pau Casals' speech before the UN General Assembly to vindicate the values of peace, justice, freedom of peoples, Catalan culture and fraternity. The event, which will take place on Saturday September 11 at the Four Columns in Montjuïc, is directed by Marta Bayarri and Jofre Bardagí, and will feature audiovisual, music, dance and painting proposals and the universal message of Pau Casals through young actors and actresses. This year's National Day will also be a "day of self-affirmation, a manifestation of the collective will of the citizens of a Plural and diverse Catalonia", as explained by the spokesperson of the Government, Patricia Plaja, during the press conference after the Executive Council.

The celebration includes several novelties such as the fact that the President of the Government, Pere Aragonès, will present the Gold Medal of the Catalan Government from El Vendrell, native village of Pau Casals, and will offer the institutional message from the modernist site of Sant Pau, a reference space where history and innovation coexist and currently hosts a vaccination point against Covid-19. This year, also for the first time, more than thirty emblematic buildings and spaces throughout Catalonia will hold open days on September 11 and 12. In this way, they will be added to the usual open visits that have traditionally been made on this day at the Palau de la Generalitat and the Parliament of Catalonia.

In addition, on the occasion of the Eleventh of September, the delegations of the Catalan Government have organized several events throughout Catalonia and Madrid. So have the foreign delegations, which have prepared a fortnight of activities to take the National Day around the world and pay tribute to several Catalans who have left their mark internationally, as the writer Aurora Bertrana in Switzerland, Count Ramon de Vilana-Perlas in Austria or the Republican exiles in Mexico.

Plaja stressed that with all the events organized in Catalonia and around the world, the Government has "the will to open the institutions to the public and this Saturday will be another symbolic example”.

Lifting of the 10-person meeting limitation

In reference to the pandemic situation, the spokesperson has advanced that the Government will make public this Friday a resolution through which the meetings will cease to be limited to 10 people, therefore, the restrictions that affect the right of assembly and freedom of worship will be lifted, restricting the capacity to religious centers. "There will no longer be any measure or restriction that affects fundamental rights", the spokesperson stressed. The Territorial Civil Protection Plan of Catalonia (Procicat), meeting at this time, is finishing addressing the details of the measure.

Negotiation table with the Spanish State

In response to questions from journalists, Plaja stressed that the meeting scheduled for next week between the Catalan and Spanish governments "is not a dialogue table, it is a negotiating table of a political conflict between the Spanish State and Catalonia". In this sense, he explained that the next meeting "is not a second meeting of the table but a restart of the negotiation with the Spanish State" since in Catalonia "there is a new government, with new actors and it has been a long time since the first meeting". This "is not just another meeting, but the most important negotiation that the government has faced in recent years", Plaja reiterated.

Government agenda for the coming days

The spokesperson reported that tomorrow, Wednesday, President Aragonés will meet with the President of the Valencian Country, Ximo Puig, will hold a meeting with the social agents and will visit the birthplace of Joan Fuster. In addition, on Friday of this week there will be a working meeting within the framework of the National Pact for Industry chaired by the Minister of Enterprise and Labor, Roger Torrent, with the presence of all the departments involved, Foment, Pimec, unions and professional associations, among others.