Existence of the Shafarevich morphism for semisimple local systems on quasi-projective varieties

Let X be a normal connected complex algebraic variety equipped with a semisimple complex representation of its fundamental group. Then, under a maximality assumption, we prove that the covering space of X associated to the kernel of the representation has a proper surjective holomorphic map with connected fibres onto a normal analytic space with no positive-dimensional compact analytic subspace.