45,000 demonstrate in Brussels EU Quarter

‘Wake up, Europe, the Catalan conflict concerns you’

Chanting ‘Wake up, Europe’, around 45,000 people, according to police data, have carried out the Catalan question as a form of protest to the administrative capital of Europe, Belgium on Thursday. The protest was led by political leaders such as Carles Puigdemont, Artur Mas and Marta Rovira that call on the European institutions to become involved in the conflict.

The protest exceeded all expectations, even the metro was opened for everybody during the whole day due to the large number of people. However the numerous logistical problems didn’t prevent thousands of citizens that request a clear recognition of their rights as European citizens, as well as the release of political prisoners .

According to the statements of the participants in the protests, most of them came to Brussels by car, train or plane in spite of the expensive prices of the tickets in the case of flights. Others made the decision to sign up for organised trips that started their fight even two days ago in differents places of the European city.

Complete families began the protest despite the bad weather and ended in a square between the buildings of the European Council and European Parliament, where their leader Carles Puigdemont addressed them.

The participants carried Catalan red and yellow flags with different messages sucha as “Europe, wake up! Let’s protect democracy!” and “Dignity of democracy is democracy of dignity!”. Others preffer banners that criticized the EU’s support for the government in Madrid. Nevertheless, the protest was totally pacific and there wasn’t any incident during the whole day. “We want that Europe knows that Catalans are pacifics and we only want that EU listen to us”- recognized a protestant during the march.

“We want a Europe of free citizens,” Puigdemet affirmed during his speech wearing a yellow scarf, that is the symbol of the independence [Picture 5].The catalan politician recognized that they fight for independence because they defend democracy. The independet policians are convinced that EU action is decisive in the Catalan question, according to the different statements of the leaders in the march.

Protestants feel repressed and demand that Europe take responsibility and reaffirm the basic principles of democracy. “We all go together so that in Europe they know that we are peaceful”, “We want respect and the support of Europe” — are some of the requests that people shouted during the protest.

As many citizens recognized, Chirarg Aldani Gulab, a Spanish student who has lived in Belgium for several years, think that Europe should not be left out. “The European Union must press both authorities to reach a common dialogue” — says the young student. Regarding the usefulness of this demonstration, Chirag affirms that of course it will be useful for many countries to identify with the situation and be encouraged to make certain decisions.

The situation in the European capital is one of concern and expectation, because as Chirag Aldani observes, Belgium feels very identified with the situation for historical reasons. To take a case in point, some locals who joined the march also carried the yellow lion rampant flags of Flanders, the wealthy Dutch-speaking region of Belgium. Flanders, like Catalonia, has a separatist movement and its separatist parties are allies at the European level with Catalonia’s.

On the other hand, Chirag Aldani affirms that Spain’s constitution is not ready to face these kind of challenges, therefore it should be modified. However, The European Commission has so far said it supports Spain’s constitution; it has not offered to mediate the dispute. The referendum was declared illegal by Spain’s constitutional, but it is clear that the legal issue is not adapted to a huge social problem that resonated strongly last Thursday in the heart of Europe.