Today I undertake a difficult path, a path that unfortunately, so many others who preceded me have had to take: the path of exile
Today I undertake a difficult path, a path that unfortunately, so many others who preceded me have had to take: the path of exile.
I cannot hide the profound sadness that I feel at leaving so many people that I love, and that I love so much. So many shared struggles during so many years with people who are moved by a single objective: to change the society that we live in. To make it more just. Decent people. To leave the land that has surrounded me since my childhood, to walk in the cities in which I have lived…
I feel sadness, but it would have been much sadder to have lived in silence. To feel that my freedom of expression was censored by courts that intimidate and that apply political criteria without pause. Every day, every hour I have felt my freedom limited by arbitrary judicial threats. I did not feel free. I did not recognize myself. During the last few weeks I have lived in an internal prison.
Exile will be a hard path, but it is the only way I have to recover my political voice. It is the only way I have to stand up against the Government of the Partido Popular, that persecutes everyone who is in favor of voting, and that punishes anyone who tries to change what is pre-established and established, a Government that is disposed to trample the rule of law and civil liberties in order to achieve its political aims.
I have a daughter, Agnès. Every mother knows how much I love her. And how strong the feeling is that I must give her everything that I can give her. Exile will allow me to be a mother to her, and she deserves that. Very much.
I want to tell you something. Don't let rancor get ahold of you. An analysis of the anti-democratic and profoundly unjust reality cannot give way to resentment. Against anyone. Against anything. It is only out of respect and love to all citizens and all opinions that we can make radical and profound changes. It is only from shared labors that we can achieve a Repubic for everyone.
Like Oriol [Junqueras] says, “During the coming days, stay strong and united. Transform your indignation ito courage and perseverance. Your rage into love. Think always of others. In what we have to redo. Persist because I will persist. Thank you for your support. I love you.” And that's what we will do, Oriol.
I write to you, now, sincerely and in freedom. And that is how I will continue to do so as General Secretary of ERC, a party that I love, that has given everything to the country and that still has much more to give.
Long live freedom, justice, equality and fraternity. Long live the Catalan Republic for everyone!
Marta Rovira
General Secretary of Esquerra Republicana