Catalonia’s international friends to attend National Day mass rally

Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators will hit the streets tomorrow in Barcelona to call for independence and the freedom of political prisoners during Catalonia’s National Day. Among them, there will be 163 people from 15 different countries who have been invited by a citizen’s platform called Foreign Friends of Catalonia.

The aim of the organisers is to pay tribute to people from other countries who are sympathetic to the current Catalan movement in defence of human rights and, in particular, of the right to self-determination. “We want them to see in person the peaceful and joyful atmosphere of Catalonia’s National Day, so that they can explain about it upon return to their countries”, they say. Most of the contacts have originated through social networks.

Since last Saturday, these journalists, writers, politicians, activists, academics, etc., are accommodated in private Catalan families’ homes and take part in a wide range of activities, such as museum visits, wine tasting or a human tower performance by local “castellers”. Today evening, they will attend a roundtable conference in Barcelona in which six foreign friends of Catalonia will talk about their experience. Tomorrow, of course, they will take part in the mass rally in Barcelona’s Diagonal, in sector 0 and together with their Catalan host families, waving flags from all over the world.

Their activity can be followed in social networks under the hashtag #FriendsOfCatalonia.