Read in Catalan

Former MP Mireia Boya announced on Wednesday evening that she is resigning from the CUP, after the left-wing pro-Catalan independence party closed its inquiry on her complaint of sexist harassment by a member of the national secretariat. Boya regretted the "silence" of her colleagues in the face of this situation. "Today is a sad day, I have resigned from the CUP because of how my case ended. Gender-based violence is personal and collective at the same time, reparation must be the same. Women, always at the centre", she wrote on social media, while also going into detail in a forceful statement.

"Two years and a pandemic have passed by since my complaint to the CUP's committee on sexist assaults about the harassment I suffered from a fellow member of the national secretariat when I was a member of the Parliament of Catalonia," she explains. According to Boya, the initial management of the complaint made by the CUP did not put her "at the centre", "despite the fact that it was a commitment of the party's and a basic principle of feminism to do so". "There was a lack of trust in me and an effort to hide what had happened. I felt that I was treated as lying, exaggerating, pushing my interest. That was the discourse that was disseminated and which part of the membership believed. It went as far as people talking to the press behind my back, with a version of everything that perhaps allowed the dirty washing to be laundered, but that was not only far removed from caring for the woman who was the victim, but it also distorted the facts, pushed me aside and it re-victimized me enormously," she said.

The former deputy admits that she had a privileged position in terms of the ability to explain her case due to the media impact, but states that she defended herself alone in front of the committee on sexist assaults, "which at that initial moment was characterized first by its partiality, then by its absence". "The silence of many colleagues, male and female, hurt me as much or more than the words of others," she added. Boya reveals that she has paid for "psychological therapy that the organization did not offer and without which today she would probably not be taking stock or making this painful decision," adding that she has not yet been able to overcome the psychological and emotional consequences such as "anxiety, fear of speaking in public, or complete insecurity in some spaces of the pro-independence or anti-capitalist left." "Over this time, I’ve abandoned every trench except my own,” she sums up.

Boya explains that "after a year and a half of silence" the CUP informed her in January "that the case was being closed". She states that the aggressor "has followed the measures agreed in the framework of the protocol". "The final report by the committee for the management of sexist assaults explains his process, which has led him to work on and acknowledge the sexist violence he exercised and the pain it caused me and other colleagues. He regrets it in a private letter that he sent me and that I have promised not to share. Reading it let me know that the CUP protocol works and is an essential tool", she assures, also so that it was known that she was not lying, exagerrating or acting out of political interest."

The former MP says, however, that "reparation must also be collective", given that "sexist aggressions are, too". And as she considers that there has been "mismanagement" by the CUP, she has decided to leave the party.

CUP's brief response

The CUP has given a very brief reply to Boya's decision, focusing on the assertion that the party will continue to "review" itself to eradicate any sexist attitude. "We also want to highlight the work carried out by the national committee on sexual assaults and emphasize that the protocol has been and is a useful tool. We regret Mireia's decision and would like to express our gratitude for all the work done by the colleague and former MP over all these years," it added.