Carles Puigdemont

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Template:Catalan name

The Very Honourable
Carles Puigdemont
Puigdemont in 2016
130th President of the Generalitat of Catalonia
In office
12 January 2016 – 28 October 2017
Disputed: 28 October 2017 – 30 October 2017
MonarchFelipe VI
Vice PresidentOriol Junqueras
Preceded byArtur Mas
Succeeded byOffice suspended
(Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría as Minister for Territorial Administrations)
President of the Association of Municipalities for Independence
In office
17 July 2015 – 11 January 2016
Preceded byJosep Maria Vila d'Abadal
Succeeded byJosep Andreu
Mayor of Girona
In office
1 July 2011 – 11 January 2016
Preceded byAnna Pagans
Succeeded byAlbert Ballesta
Member of the Catalan Parliament
for Girona
In office
10 November 2006 – 27 October 2017 (Dismissal is disputed)
Member of the City of Girona Council
for the Province of Girona
In office
11 June 2007 – 11 January 2016
Personal details
Born
Carles Puigdemont i Casamajó

(1962-12-29) 29 December 1962 (age 61)
Amer, Girona, Catalonia, Spain
Political partyDemocratic Convergence of Catalonia (1983–2016)
Catalan European Democratic Party (2016–present)
Spouse
​
(m. 2000)​
Children2
Alma materUniversity of Girona

Carles Puigdemont i Casamajó (Catalan pronunciation: [ˈkarɫəs pudʒdəˈmon i kazəməˈʒo] ⓘ; 29 December 1962) is a Catalan politician, who became the President of the Government of Catalonia on 12 January 2016. His current status is a matter of dispute following Catalonia's unilateral declaration of independence from Spain on 27 October 2017. From the perspective of the former Government of Catalonia, he remains Catalan President. From the perspective of the Government of Spain, he was removed from office by Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy on 28 October 2017.[1] Puigdemont did not recognise his removal from office, stating that he will "work to build a free country" and asked Catalans to "democratically oppose" the enforcement of Article 155 of the Spanish Constitution of 1978.[2] On 30 October, it transpired that Puigdemont and part of his sacked government had fled to Belgium in a move to avoid action from the Spanish judiciary,[3] as the Spanish Attorney General José Manuel Maza announced a criminal complaint against them for rebellion, sedition and embezzlement.[4][5]

Born in Amer, Girona, his early career focused on journalism in various local newspapers. He later became director of the Catalan News Agency, as well as the weekly Catalonia Today. A supporter of Convergence and Union (CiU) from 1983 to 2016, he began his political career in 2006, when he was chosen deputy to the Parliament by CiU. In 2011, he was elected mayor of Girona, where he lived for years, after winning the municipal elections held the same year.[6] Four years later he became the new president of the Association of Municipalities for Independence.

On 10 January 2016, he was elected the 130th President of the Generalitat of Catalonia by the Parliament of Catalonia. This followed an agreement carried out the day before between Together for Yes and the CUP, in which it was announced that he would replace Artur Mas as president of the Generalitat in exchange for a guarantee of parliamentary stability for his Government. On 14 January he presented his new Government.[7][8]

Early life

Puigdemont (right) as a child, next to his older brother

Puigdemont was born on 29 December 1962 in Amer (Province of Girona).[9] The son of Xavier Puigdemont i Oliveras and Núria Casamajó i Ruiz, he is the second of eight brothers from a family of pastry-making tradition. Although his family is not directly related to politics, his great-grandfather and his uncle Josep Puigdemont (1979–1983) were mayors of Amer.

He received a basic education and attended high school in his native town Amer, and was then educated in boarding school at Santa Maria del Collell in Girona. At the age of 16, he was already a reporter for the newspaper Diari de Girona, authoring football reports and other news. He studied Catalan philology at the University of Girona, which he later left, without graduating, to work in journalism.

Journalism career

In 1981, he started working for the newspaper El Punt, where he ended up as editor-in-chief. He also worked on the journal Presència [es].

Puigdemont lays a flower in tribute to the victims of the 2017 Barcelona attacks

In 1988, he devoted himself to collecting references from the international press about Catalonia, material that resulted in the publication of the 1994 book Cata... què? Catalunya vista per la premsa internacional ("Cata...what? Catalonia as seen by the foreign press").[10] He is a member of the Catalan Journalists Association [es]. During the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, he participated in an organization supporting Catalan nationalists detained as part of the so-called "Operation Garzón".

In the 1990s, he traveled elsewhere within Europe and began working on the application of new technologies to information, which would be translated into the creation of the Catalan News Agency (ACN), commissioned by the Generalitat in 1999. Puigdemont directed the agency until 2002, when the then-president of the Diputació de Girona, Carles Pàramo (CiU), offered him the position of director of the House of Culture of Girona. He is also the founder of the Catalan magazine in English Catalonia Today.

Protest against the trial of Artur Mas, Joana Ortega and Irene Rigau on 6 February 2017

Political career

He left journalism to devote himself fully to politics in 2006 when CiU made him another offer: to take part in the candidacy for the Catalan Parliament.[11] In 2007, Puigdemont ran for the local elections in Girona as Convergence and Union's candidate, but he was not successful and remained in opposition. However, in the following local elections (2011), he managed to break the Socialists' Party of Catalonia's 32-year hegemony in Girona and became mayor.[12]

President Puigdemont walking through Barcelona with his daughters on Saint George's Day

In July 2015, he succeeded Josep Maria Vila d'Abadal as the Chair of Association of Municipalities for Independence and was elected as an MP for Girona's Together for Yes candidature in the elections for the Parliament of Catalonia (27 September 2015).[13] He was elected as President of Catalonia on 10 January 2016, following a last-minute agreement between the pro-Catalan independence parties Together for Yes and CUP.[14][15] On 11 January 2016, he resigned as Mayor of Girona because he is not allowed to be President and Mayor at the same time.[16] He is the first Catalan President to refuse to take the oath of loyalty to the Spanish constitution and the current monarch, Felipe VI.[citation needed]

Catalonia crisis

On 27 October 2017, after overseeing the disputed Catalan declaration of independence resulting from the also disputed affirmative passage of the independence referendum on 1 October (as less than half of eligible voters voted, though some were violently kept from doing so by the Spanish Guardia Civil), Puigdemont was removed from office by the government under the provisions of Article 155.[17][18]

Facing a lawsuit with charges of sedition, rebellion and embezzlement of public funds filed by Attorney General José Manuel Maza and submitted to the Audiencia Nacional,[19][20] Puigdemont arrived in Brussels on 30 October. Belgium's Secretary of State for Asylum, Migration and Administrative Simplification Theo Francken had stated that he could seek asylum in the country.[21]

Personal life

Puigdemont has been married since 2000 to a Romanian journalist, Marcela Topor, and has two daughters.[22] He speaks Catalan, French, Romanian and Spanish.[23]

References

  1. ^ Ponce de León, Rodrigo (27 October 2017). "Rajoy cesa a Puigdemont y su Govern y convoca elecciones para el 21 de diciembre". eldiario.es (in Spanish). Retrieved 27 October 2017.
  2. ^ "Catalan ex-leader Carles Puigdemont vows to resist takeover". BBC News. 28 October 2017. Retrieved 29 October 2017.
  3. ^ Cortizo, Gonzalo (30 October 2017). "Puigdemont y parte de su gobierno se refugian en Bélgica para evitar a la justicia española". eldiario.es (in Spanish). Retrieved 30 October 2017.
  4. ^ Guindal, Carlota (30 October 2017). "La Fiscalía se querella contra Puigdemont y el Govern por rebelión y sedición". La Vanguardia (in Spanish). Retrieved 30 October 2017.
  5. ^ Jones, Sam (30 October 2017). "Spanish prosecutor calls for rebellion charges against Catalan leaders". The Guardian. Barcelona. Retrieved 30 October 2017.
  6. ^ "Carles Puigdemont personal blog – About me". Carlespuigdemont.cat. Retrieved 30 October 2017.
  7. ^ "Junts pel Sí i la CUP tanquen un acord per a dur endavant la legislatura". VilaWeb.cat (in Catalan). 9 January 2016. Retrieved 9 January 2016.
  8. ^ "Acord entre Junts pel Sí i la CUP amb Carles Puigdemont de president i sense Mas". 324.cat (in Catalan). 9 January 2016. Retrieved 9 January 2016.
  9. ^ "Carles Puigdemont i Casamajó". Enciclopedia.cat. Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana. Retrieved 9 January 2016.
  10. ^ "La Campana Editorial – Cata...què?". lacampanaeditorial.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 27 October 2017.
  11. ^ "Puigdemon'ts profile as a MP". Parlament de Catalunya (in Catalan).
  12. ^ "Carles Puigdemont (CiU) serà el nou alcalde de Girona i acaba amb 32 anys d'hegemonia del PSC". Ara.cat (in Catalan). 22 May 2011. Retrieved 9 January 2016.
  13. ^ March, Oriol (27 December 2015). "La refundació de CDC passa pels alcaldes". Ara. p. 22. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  14. ^ "Carles Puigdemont, de alcalde de Girona a president de la Generalitat" [Carles Puigdemont, from mayor of Girona to president of the Generalitat]. La Vanguardia (in Spanish). 9 January 2016. Retrieved 10 January 2016.
  15. ^ "The parties in Catalonia have reached an agreement to form an independentist government". Vilaweb. 9 January 2016. Retrieved 9 January 2016.
  16. ^ "Puigdemont renuncia a la alcaldía de Girona tras ser investido President". La Sexta (in Spanish). 11 January 2016. Retrieved 11 January 2016.
  17. ^ "Spanish PM dissolves Catalan parliament". BBC News. 27 October 2017. Retrieved 27 October 2017.
  18. ^ "Real Decreto 942/2017, de 27 de octubre, por el que se dispone, en virtud de las medidas autorizadas con fecha 27 de octubre de 2017 por el Pleno del Senado respecto de la Generalitat de Cataluña en aplicación del artículo 155 de la Constitución, el cese del M.H. Sr. Presidente de la Generalitat de Cataluña, don Carles Puigdemont i Casamajó. Boletin Oficial del Estado núm. 261, de 28 de octubre de 2017, páginas 103562 a 103563" [Royal Decree 942/2017 of 27 October] (in Spanish). 27 October 2017. Retrieved 29 October 2017.
  19. ^ "La Fiscalía se querella contra Puigdemont y el Govern por rebelión y sedición". La Vanguardia. 30 October 2017.
  20. ^ "El fiscal se querella por rebelión, sedición y malversación contra Puigdemont y Forcadell". El País. 30 October 2017.
  21. ^ "Catalonia's ousted president just fled the country". Independent.co.uk. 30 October 2017. Retrieved 30 October 2017.
  22. ^ "Carles Puigdemont actress wife 'LEAVES family home' as Catalonia on brink of independence". Express.co.uk. 27 October 2017.
  23. ^ "Carles Puigdemont: freedom fighter or the enemy within". Euronews.com. 10 October 2017. Retrieved 11 October 2017. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Carles Puigdemont.
Political offices
Preceded by Mayor of Girona
2011–2016 		Succeeded by
Preceded by President of the Generalitat of Catalonia
2016–2017 		Suspended
Party political offices
Preceded by President of the Association of Municipalities for Independence Succeeded by
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