Manresa City Council has said that councillors who attended the Guardia Civil's 12 October event did so in a personal capacity, rather than as representatives of the municipal authority, according to Regió7's reporting.
The clarification follows Monday's Día de la Hispanidad, Spain's national day, and matters because it distinguishes councillors' individual attendance from an official position by the Ajuntament, the city council. For Manresa residents, the dispute concerns how elected representatives present the city at official events and has prompted open disagreement among local political groups.
Avenç Nacionalista challenges the attendance
Avenç Nacionalista, a pro-independence political group, criticised the presence of members of Manresa's municipal government at the Guardia Civil command post. The Guardia Civil is Spain's national police force with military status.
In a statement signed by its president, Sergi Perramon, the group said the participation was neither innocent nor neutral, and argued that it helped to normalise what it called military occupation and dilute Catalan national identity.
“Catalan cultural identity cannot automatically be equated with Hispanic identity, nor with a homogeneous conception of the state or empire.”Sergi Perramon, president of Avenç Nacionalista, in the group's statement
Avenç Nacionalista also directed criticism at Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC), the pro-independence party that leads Manresa's municipal government and holds the mayoralty. It called on municipal groups committed to Catalan independence to publicly reject the attendance.
CUP-Fem Manresa also objects
CUP-Fem Manresa has described the municipal government's presence at the Día de la Hispanidad event as “shameful”, according to the statement reported by NacióManresa.
The council's position is that the councillors did not attend on behalf of Manresa City Council.
Reported by regio7.cat, naciodigital.cat, vanlett.com, eb.guardiacivil.es.
