The secretary general of ERC, Marta Rovira, has reappeared online after a period of silence and her choice of day to do so is notable: the first anniversary of the debate in the Catalan Parliament which approved the Law for the Referendum. The politician, in exile in Switzerland, posted a thread on Twitter recalling how "a year ago today, I lifted my finger in the Parliament to ask to speak and propose... in accordance with our democratic mandate, that the Law for the Catalonia Self-determination Referendum be debated".
Rovira then dedicated some words to then-speaker Carme Forcadell, "today in prison for this, [who] gave me the floor, as she gave it to the other parties". In the end, "the majority of the Parliament decided, by voting, to hold the debate on the Referendum Law".
Mentioning Forcadell again, she emphasised that she "made sure that everyone should have their rights to opposition on the parliamentary procedure" before something "which is normal in a parliamentary democracy: a deep political debate with all guarantees".
In the Twitter thread, she also attacked the attitude of the opposition that 6th September: "it represented the state which has a phobia of democracy". She said that "they're scared of direct democracy. Referendums. They're scared of the people taking their own political decisions".
On the right to self-determination, Rovira said it's a "collective right inherent to Catalonia, inalienable, irrevocable, which is not limited". To back up her point, she posted an image of a resolution from the Parliament from 1989 "on the right to self-determination of the Catalan nation".
Finally, the exiled politician says that the Catalan people "has to be able to decide [its future] democratically" and that a referendum like last year's "isn't a crime". "Holding a referendum, in democratic countries, is the political solution for social progress".