EL PUNT 51 DIUMENGE, 10 DE SETEMBRE DEL 2017 |

Every day Today offers readers this summary of the most important news from El Punt Avui, all in English. www.cataloniatoday.cat

POINT MADE Carles Sabaté FACES OF THE DAY STATE PROSECUTOR Your daily dose No voting papers nor Commons José Manuel Maza Pitiful image of English It was great to see the humorous response of people in Valls to the raid by the Guardia Civil yesterday. Smiling in the face of pro- The image of the Guardia Civil searching firms and em- ployees cars for voting papers or materials for the refer- El Punt Avui Televisió vocation is a sign of a healthy society that can laugh at adversity. -+= endum is pitiful in a state that calls itself democratic. offers you English Hour, Perhaps the officers were not aware that voting papers can be original interviews and printed out at home and no doubt at Monday’s National Day de- SPOKESMAN OF CATALUNYA EN COMÚ debates – all in authentic monstration there will be plenty. What was not so great was the Xavier Domènech English – every weekday Commons party still debating how they should approach the refer- endum and passing the decision on to the membership. How dis- Lukewarm before 1-O evening tant from the leadership shown by the left in the anti-Francoist It is somewhat surprising to see a leftwing party that sup- struggle. Less distant, in time alone, are the 15-M assemblies, ports Catalan sovereignty so reluctant to commit itself to Weekday evenings where the public was asked to decide everything, beyond the law. -+= the October 1 referendum on self-determination.

Carles Puigdemont President of Catalonia ‘The people have the final word’ AGREEMENT · “The State knows that up to the last A book stall yesterday in Catalan Book Week ■ J. LOSADA minute that the door to dialogue remains open” CULTURE Catalan Book Week a Xevi Xirgo There is no going back… For us there isn’t. For the Spanish success despite rain government going back is possible: ou said “referendum or refer- it knows that up to the last minute Last year, stallholders were have a country in which endum” and now it will be the door to dialogue is open, and if it President ■ A.P. dying of heat, this year it people travel to buy books,” Yunilateral. Is this the best? believes it can find agreement with rained. However, the 35th edi- said fair director, Joan Sala. It is the only solution poss- the majority of people of Catalonia a single narrative of what is hap- tion of Catalan Book Week, Yet, Catalan Book Week ible. It was not our priority, which to vote, we can go back to the prior- pening in Catalonia. which began on Friday, has still attracted authors of the was to agree a referendum with the ity of an agreed referendum. been hailed as a success. Yet stature of Paul Auster, and State. But what has primacy is the Did you foresee the complications Catalan Book Week is still enough public to leave pub- right of Catalans to vote. The final How do you feel when you see like today with El Vallenc? looking for its ideal home. It lishers satisfied. In fact, it word cannot be had by bureau- headlines saying “Coup”? We knew the only alternative they has been inside in Drassanes looks as if numbers will top cratic, legal, political or economic I’ve cut myself off from a lot of it. In think they have is the option of fear, and Montjuïc, and outdoors last year’s record. One of the elites, which is the model they ask reading one, you read all of them. of persecution, of the repeated use for years on Avinguda de la reasons given for the larger us to accept. No. With such a rel- There is a sort of single newsroom, of the immense power of the state. Catedral, a central site but li- number of visitors is that this evant issue, the people have to have with a unique way of thinking, pro- You don’t have to be brave to do so. mited in size and at the mercy year the fair began later, as the final word. viding Spanish public opinion with What is brave is facing it. of the weather. “The future is last year it began on Sept- to do the Week in a fair venue, ember 2, when many people the problem is we still don’t were still on holiday. ■ V.G.

was the company that ————————————————————————————————— ————————————————————————————————— commissioned the Indu- SOCIETY SOCIETY Guardia Civil raid Valls graf printing firm in Con- stantí to produce voting Seven victims of Barcelona’s port slips. Yet, the editor de- terror attacks still awarded cruise weekly amid public jeers nied it, saying “they didn’t in hospital ship prize find any papers and we have committed no of- Seven people, two in a serious Barcelona’s port has been Staff panies and media related then had to make a state- fence.” condition, remain in hospital given an International German VALLS to the self-determination ment at the Guardia Civil Other sources suggest after being injured in the at- Cruise Award in the Seatrade referendum. police station in Tarra- that it is the Valls local tacks in Barcelona and Cam- Europe fair. The main con- A dozen Guardia Civil po- The officers, who left gona. It is believed that the council that might be be- brils on August 17. Six of the gress of the cruise ship sector lice officers raided the the building amid taunts police were looking for evi- hind the operation, using patients were injured in met this week in Hamburg. newsroom of the weekly from the people outside, dence linking the El Val- the weekly as a way of Barcelona and one in Cam- The jury awarded the Catalan publication, El Vallenc, in took the computer of the lenc publication with the screening the commis- brils, the latter is in a serious capital the prize for the mod- Valls yesterday, while out- editor, Francesc Fàbre- printing of material to be sion. However, mayor, Al- condition in a Zaragoza hospi- ernity of its facilities, and high- side some 300 people con- gas, and made copies of used in the independence bert Batet, denied the ac- tal, says the Catalan health lighted the city’s architecture gregated to denounce documents and emails, referendum set for Oc- cusation and called the department. One of the pa- and cultural richness, making what they considered according to Fàbregas. tober 1. According to dif- whole police operation tients in Barcelona remains in it “a preferred destination for state persecution of com- The editor of the weekly ferent sources, the weekly “absurd and comical”. ■ a serious condition. ■ STAFF cruise passengers.” ■ STAFF