The return of Anna Gabriel, former MP, to Spain, after four years of exile in Switzerland, is good news. As is the fact that after her appearance before the Spanish Supreme Court to regularise her situation, she was released pending the summons of Judge Pablo Llarena to testify. Anna Gabriel, who does not intend to stay in Catalonia in the near future, came over for a short spell and chose to return to Switzerland, where she lives and is the secretary general of the Geneva-based trade union Unia. Clearly, as Catalan president in exile Carles Puigdemont points out, in a fully-fledged democracy, the former CUP MP would never have had to appear before the court, and the fact she had to spend so many years away from her family and friends is an absolute anomaly, but there is still reason to share the news and rejoice for her, her family and her friends.
The fact she returned voluntarily with the intention of regularising her judicial situation, as she was still formally charged for failing to appear before the Supreme Court when summoned for her involvement in the unilateral declaration of independence made by the Catalan Parliament, shows her departure was the right decision. It has raised awareness about the struggle for Catalan independence, it has shown the broad spectrum of political exiles by highlighting the repression that exists in Catalonia, and it has slashed the Spanish justice system's margin for manoeuvre, which until now had a Spanish arrest warrant in force for her, to be brought before the Supreme Court.
Although all exiles are a world unto themselves, Gabriel's path is in some ways similar to that of former ERC minister Meritxell Serret, who after a few years of exile in Brussels, returned to Madrid in March 2021. She also appeared before the Supreme Court, was released and returned to her hometown, Vallfogona de Balaguer, and is currently MP for the Lleida constituency. For obvious reasons, all the movements of those exiles who want to know how the Supreme Court would react to a possible return are kept from the public and the media. Anna Gabriel's return was not a great surprise, as it was known it could be before the summer, as it finally was.
In this list, neither official nor confirmed, the next exile who might be thinking of returning to Catalonia is the general secretary of Esquerra, Marta Rovira, who has been living in Switzerland since March 2018. In December 2017 she was charged by the Supreme Court for allegedly rebelling due to her participation in the October 1st referendum, and after making a statement was released on a €60,000 bail. Rovira was again summoned by Llarena in March 2018 together with former minister Dolors Bassa and Carme Forcadell former speaker of the Catalan Parliament but, unlike them, she did not show up in Madrid, alleging lack of judicial guarantees and chose exile instead. The international arrest warrant presented by the Judge expired in July 2018, after Germany refused to hand over Carles Puigdemont for the crime of rebellion. ERC is convinced Rovira will return soon, although there is great secrecy about it.