Eduard Pujol says that the restitution as a member of JxCat is a "first step" to rehabilitating his image

Barcelona"I respected the decision of my party, despite it being deeply unfair. That now I have lifted the suspension of membership is a first step towards my public rehabilitation". This is how the former JxCat spokesman in Parliament Eduard Pujol expressed himself in a statement made public early Tuesday morning, reaffirming his "innocence" after the party has apologized to him and decided to amend it. "I will restore my honor", he promises.

Since he was removed from office for internal complaints of alleged sexual harassment, those affected have not gone to court. A fact that, as explained yesterday by the Secretary General of Junts, Jordi Sànchez, has made the party revise its initial position.

Pujol, as the statement remarked, has gone to court, and has filed two lawsuits for slander, libel and threats to women who had raised complaints. According to the former deputy - a position he can no longer recover - the people who "defamed" him, referring to the people who complained internally, chose "this path expressly". "They only sought to spread lies publicly without caring about anything else. These people have cared neither about the truth, nor the protection of any rights, nor the damage they do", he said in the letter.

A "very important gesture"

After the decision to reinstate him as a member- something that Pujol stresses has been by "unanimity" of the executive - the former deputy considers that it is "a very important gesture" by the party, since we are in a society - he adds - that is not accustomed to "rectification". "I knew that this moment would come because lies, in the end, fall by their own weight", he says.

In his opinion, with this decision "begins" a path that has to continue, although party sources rule out that it has a specific organic weight in the party. And it is that for Pujol it is a necessary movement but "insufficient" at the same time. "I will not falter. I maintain the will to go all the way, for me and because this type of situation - defamation and gratuitous public lynching - will not happen again", ended the former deputy in his statement.

Pujol was in this situation since October, when after several internal complaints of alleged sexual harassment the party leadership forced him to step aside from office and leave his seat as a deputy. Sànchez acknowledged yesterday at a press conference that this is difficult to reverse, but said they will review their performance to learn "lessons". In any case, he defended the party's decision not to give a sense of "impunity" to such accusations.