"They asked me how I could go to bed with a black man"

After weeks of harassment and increasing pressure to step down from her post in Salt (Girona province), Plataforma per Catalunya (PxC) councilor Joana Martínez handed in her resignation from the party last week after the grouping, which is strongly anti-immigration, learned she was romantically linked with a Cameroon national living in Spain.

Martínez was elected as a councilor in Salt in the May elections. Highly disturbed by the events, she says she has since been taking anti-anxiety medication for the last few days, hasn't been able to go into the hospital where she works as a nurse, and feels "hurt, cheated and deceived." Though her party asked her not to reveal the circumstances surrounding her resignation, citing instead personal reasons for her departure (a request to which she responded to PxC leader Josep Anglada to the effect that she would not lie to save anybody's butt), she recounts here the suffering she and her partner endured at the hands of her former party members over the past three months, which led to last week's events.

Question. Did you leave the party or were you thrown out?

Answer. I was forced to leave. When I told my party colleagues that my partner was a black man, they began insulting and threatening me. They told me I was filthy, and asked how I could go to bed with a black man. I was rejected and given the cold shoulder. If we were going out to have a drink, it was made clear that my partner was not invited.

Q. Were they not aware of your circumstances when they were drawing up the party's electoral list?

A. Before I was put on the list, I spoke with Josep Anglada, and I told him I was living with my partner, who was from Cameroon. I said he is a Christian, he works and pays taxes. Do you have a problem with this? And he told me there was no problem. I told him, as the party's highest representative, so that later I could not be accused of lying.

Q. But you didn't leave the party until just a few days ago?

A. I just kept quiet about what I was thinking; I put up with it. But they started insisting that I resign.

Q. Anglada and also PxC Salt town councilor Carles Bonet have said that they only asked you to prove that your partner was living legally in Spain.

A. That's not true. They never told me that. Besides, my partner has papers. He studied political science in Cameroon, and now he is working as a cook.

Q. What happened when you left the party?

A. María Osuna [another PxC councilor and second on the Salt electoral list] called me and asked me in a very conciliatory tone to say that I was leaving the party for personal reasons.

Q. In the three months before your resignation, did you speak with Anglada about what was happening?

A. Yes, by telephone. He told me to be patient, that it takes time for groups to gel.

Q. Did you ever imagine that it would come to this?

A. No, your personal life is sacred. They told me that they wanted to improve things in Salt through less immigration, less delinquency, fewer drugs. I am 52 years old, and I had never even voted. I wanted to help improve the situation in Salt, to fight against crime, but not against ordinary people who come here to work.

Q. Are you going to resign from your position as councilor?

A. Maybe not. The mayor [Jaume Torramadé of the CiU Catalan nationalist bloc] has said he will support me and his office has asked me to stay on.