The campaign for the independence referendums in Catalonia that will take place on december the 13th has started. Yesterday more than 3500 people filled the “Fòrum de Barcelona” auditorium (link in Catalan) in what was a public presentation of the referendums organisation.

Amongst other people celebrities like Miquel Calçada, aka Mikimoto, a Catalan TV presenter or Carles Móra, the Mayor of Arenys de Munt, the little village that hosted the first referendum back in september spoke and said that: “We have gone past many stages with this initiative and the next one is the independence” he also said that “last week’s joint editorial is nothing but a desperate plea because they know the Statute is the last stop and that Catalonia’s dignity only has one name: Independence”.

A great amount of catalan intellectuals and celebrities like the catalan international actor Sergi López and catalan actor Joel Joan actively support the referendums.

At the meeting it was also announced that the collection of 500.000 signatures to force the Catalan Parliament deputies to discuss the independence.

Last week the Catalan press published a joint editorial pleading the Spanish Constitutional Court not to further cut the Catalan Statute since rumours were that after three years of deliberation the Court was finally ready to give a very restrictive sentence. This was an attempt of Catalan unionist media to stop the Catalan independentist movement by pleasing the public Catalan opinion but the Spanish media interpreted this as an attack and responded with extreme aggressivity.

Seems like December will be an interesting month for Catalonia. On December the 13th 161 villages and cities across Catalonia will host referendums of independence organised without any support of the political parties following the initiative started by Arenys de Munt and more than 700000 Catalans will have the right to vote. In December the 15th the first voting towards banning bullfighting in Catalonia will take place following a popular initiative that collected 180000 signatures.