▲ Marta Rovira (centre) arrives in Barcelona flanked by the regional president of Catalonia, Pere Aragonés, protected by the amnesty law in Spain.Afp Photo

Armando G. Tejeda

Correspondent

The newspaper La Jornada
Saturday, July 13, 2024, p. 23

Madrid. Once the general amnesty law came into force and the legal proceedings against them were neutralised, a group of prominent Catalan independence leaders decided to return to their country, with cases such as that of Marta Rovira, secretary general of Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC) who has lived in Switzerland for eight years.

As soon as they set foot on Catalan soil again, they warned that We are here to finish what we left unfinished and make the definitive secession of the autonomous community from the Spanish State a reality.

The journey began last Thursday afternoon by car, crossing the mountainous areas that separate Switzerland from Spain. The vehicle was carrying two of the ERC leaders who decided to move their residence to the Swiss country for fear that the Spanish courts would prosecute them for their participation in the protests, which took place in Catalonia following the sentences against the separatist leaders who promoted the failed secession process in October 2017.

The Spanish judges saw in these acts, in which they tried to close the Barcelona airport, the high-speed station in the Catalan capital and the Spanish National Police stations, alleged terrorist crimes.

Rovira travelled with the regional deputy Rubén Wagensberg and both declared, as soon as they set foot on Catalan soil, that their return was a victory of the independence movement, which We should celebrate it because lately we have very few things to be happy about.referring to the electoral defeats they have suffered in recent years and the loss of social support. I have dreamed of this moment many timessaid Rovira after her arrival at Cantallops, in Girona, where she was received by the president of ERC, Oriol Junqueras.