'Diada' de Catalunya: Brussels' 'funny fountain' and Man City mark regional day, which loses supporters in Barcelona

CATALUNYA'S regional day brought its usual colourful wall-to-wall march through Barcelona and nods to the north-eastern territory's culture and history among its expats worldwide – but this year was one of the least-supported in the current decade as those who are not in favour of independence felt unrepresented.

Annual 'Catalunya Pride' has long been a mere patriotic celebration and, for the past 17 years, an uplifting antidote to the sombre global spirit that reigns on the same date, now September 11 has become synonymous with New York's devastating World Trade Centre attacks.

But organisers this year say only around 200,000 took part – about the same number as in 2017, barely three weeks before the disputed October 1 referendum, and just a fifth of the crowd size seen in 2014.

For the first time ever, the Catalunya socialist party, or PSC – the regional affiliate of the reigning central government socialist or PSOE party – did not attend, and neither did the mayoress of Barcelona, where most of the action happens.

Like most of the marchers, Ada Colau of the left-wing party En Comú Podem wore a yellow loop in support of the so-called 'political prisoners', or regional officials held in custody for their role in organising the referendum, but did not attend the march as she is 'not a secessionist'.

Sra Colau has long argued in favour of a non-binding referendum and open, uncensored discussion between Catalunya's and Spain's governments as being the only way to bridge the gap between the separatists and those who, like her, want Catalunya to remain part of the mother country.

The overwhelming majority of demonstrators' banners and chants urging, 'Let's make a republic now', and urging regional president Quim Torra to declare independence from Spain, meant the 62% of the Catalunya people who did not vote for secession no longer felt the Diada, as the celebration is known, belonged to them.

The referendum, which led to the then regional president Carles Puigdemont having to flee to Belgium with four of his ministers, one of whom – Clara Ponsatí – has since moved to Scotland, plus CUP spokeswoman Anna Cabriel emigrating to Switzerland and nine key politicians being remanded in custody, saw 42% of the eligible voting public cast their ballots, of whom over 90% opted for secession.

Anti-independence campaigners say this is not representative, since the vast majority of those who were against secession did not vote as they considered the referendum illegal, and insist that 38% of the population is not a majority.

But 'Catalunya Pride' was not entirely political elsewhere in the world: expats wore the colours of their flag just to mark the day, and the Casal Català association in Brussels dressed the much-photographed 'Manneken Pis' statue up as a traditional Catalunya shepherd (pictured above right).

The Belgian capital's most-famous sculpture, a fountain with a bronze man 'weeing' the water into the base, changes his clothes about 100 times a year - sometimes to mark Spanish regional or provincial holidays, having recently been dressed in the traditional costume of Segovia, Castilla y León; and, in July, he wore the Belgian national football team colours during the World Cup.

He has been the subject of anecdotes worldwide and even featured on the spoof UK TV quiz show QI, hosted by Stephen Fry.

Two Catalunya ministers still living in Brussels, Meritxell Serret and Lluís Puig, joined the Casal Català group to sing their regional anthem, Els Segadors, and take selfies next to the statue.

And Manchester City FC posted a Bona Diada a Tothom ('Happy Diada to everyone') message on Twitter.

After former FC Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola took up the reins at Man City in 2016, the club opened a Twitter account, @ManCityCatalà, in the catalán language, which currently has nearly 32,000 followers.