Tension in the Diada: Arran tries to prevent the Aliança Catalana event at the Fossar de Les Moreres

From division, to direct confrontation. The clash between the different factions of the Catalan independence movement threatens to escalate until reaching unprecedented tension during this Diada. This afternoon, on the eve of September 11, the most radical secessionism has gathered at the symbolic Fossar de Les Moreres, the venerated mausoleum in which the "martyrs" who faced the Bourbon troops in 1714, on the occasion of the War of Succession, are buried.

Arran, the youth division of the CUP, has proposed to prevent Aliança Catalana from setting foot in Fossar to hold a political event, like the one it has organized the last two years. Faced with the prospect that the formation led by Sílvia Orriols will move hundreds of militants from the center of Catalonia to Barcelona, ​​the anti-system have urged their followers to take the space at five in the afternoon, half an hour before the start of the act of the xenophobic pro-independence formation. "We will not give them the independence movement, we will not give up a single inch of land," cries the Arran call, which will be supported by members of unions and other small groups of the secessionist extreme left such as Alerta Solidaria, COS or the Sindicat d' Estudiantes dels Països Catalans.

The CUP and its youth used to focus their efforts on organizing their own demonstration on the afternoon of September 11, after the majority march of the independence movement, which since the years of the process has been led by the Catalan National Assembly (ANC). This concentration traditionally serves as a culmination of September 11 and it is customary to burn Spanish flags and portraits of the King. Without giving up on that coven, the anti-system will focus this year on fighting Aliança and trying to boycott its act. «It's over, we won't allow it. We will not allow Aliança to occupy Fossar to spread its racist discourse," cries one of the videos released by Arran in recent days.

How far they are willing to go to prevent Aliança from concentrating on Fossar is an unknown that has led the Mossos d'Esquadra to dedicate a major operation to prevent possible physical confrontations.

And the radical pro-independence left has been planning the boycott of Aliança since the spring. In April, he already made public the call for his counter-demonstration on September 10, and the atmosphere has not stopped heating up since then, both on social networks and in secessionist forums, where one can read messages such as: «Seeing the profile of the alliance members who were last year, with a lot of youth, those from Arran will disappear quickly if there are no police. How they like civil war and internal fights between Catalans. "They have not yet accepted that they are a minority."

«We intend to remember our fallen with honor. "Is there anything more anti-Catalan than fighting against a movement that seeks to free our country from the Spanish regime," refute other videos in which young Aliança spokespersons defend from Fossar himself that "on September 10 all nationalists have to be in the square, defending the freedom to express ourselves, to think and to remember those who have gone before us." So, definitely, the shock is served.

But the independence division will be palpable beyond the dispute between the CUP and Aliança. The party led by the mayor of Ripoll has made secessionism implode and the estimates of the Catalan CIS already grant it third position in a possible Catalan autonomous elections, practically equaling ERC and surpassing Junts, which would lose 20 deputies in relation to the 2024 elections and which remains deprived of solid leadership, since the date on which Carles Puigdemont will be able to return to Spain is still unknown. The Constitutional Court is expected to resolve the appeal of the former president of the Generalitat before the end of the year.

This division and the fact that the Diada falls on a Friday, leading to a three-day long weekend throughout Catalonia, will hardly encourage participation, which has not stopped collapsing since October 1. Only 28,000 people demonstrated last year in Barcelona to demand the independence of Catalonia.