This November 9 marks the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Undoubtedly, one of the most important events in contemporary European history, since it involves the end of the Cold War and the Soviet regime and, at the same time, a decisive impetus for the construction of a new Europe that aspires to live in peace and freedom. A quarter century later, in the same November 9, Catalans also want to bring down the walls that bar the way to our most basic rights. And the ban on the new 9-N, implemented by the Spanish government and executed by a Constitutional Court totally devoid of any impartiality, can be considered an indiscriminate attack against freedom of expression, opinion and participation. All three, incidentally, recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The best reaction to the total absence of dialogue of the Spanish State is a complete mass mobilization to fill ballot boxes, to show the world that the desire for self-determination of Catalan society is not only legitimate, but fully in force and shared by most in an unprecedented manner. That's why I encourage all inhabitants of Sitges to join the participatory event this Sunday to cast our ballots to decide the political future of Catalonia. This is a personal commitment that I assumed as mayor, together with all the government, when eighteen organizations from Sitges asked, during the last National Day of Catalonia, that all elected officials of the town did all that was in our hands to allow that the citizens of Sitges could exercise their right to decide.
Our loyalty to the Catalan institutions, and our support for the proposed consultation process, will materialize on Sunday with the opening two points of participation (Institut Juan Ramon Benaprès and Institut Vinyet) with special and free transport to facilitate the movement of all the people who need it. All this will contribute to the development of a festive day of protest in which, beyond the vote of each individual, the entire Sitges and Catalonia must prove again that we are part of a civic, democratic and peaceful society with excellent organizational skills.
This 2014, 300 years after Catalonia lost its national rights, the citizens of this country will express at the ballot boxes what will be our collective future. Referendums in Scotland and Quebec –previously agreed by UK and Canada– are the most obvious proof that the political challenges of the twenty-first century cannot solved, as the government of Spain pretends, with restrictions and denials associated with authoritarian states and not to modern advanced democracies. President Mas often reminds that laws are made to serve and listen to people, not to prohibit their dreams and silence them.
This November 9, Catalans will rewrite an outstanding page of our ancient history. The big difference is that this time,we will consider all opinions. Catalonia's fate depends only on each and every one of us. I will participate in the N-9 because I want to decide my future. Would you like to do the same?
