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MADRID: A digital political unknown when he was first elected to guide Catalonia in 2016, Carles Puigdemont grew to become the face of the area’s independence motion when he spearheaded a referendum the next 12 months on breaking away from Spain.
The 58-year-old former journalist has lived in exile in Belgium for the reason that 2017 vote, needed by Spain accused of sedition.
He was arrested on arrival within the Italian island of Sardinia on Thursday and is anticipated to look in court docket on Friday at a listening to that would see him extradited to Spain after 4 years as a fugitive.
Born in Amer, a small mountainous village of two,200 folks in Catalonia, the second of eight siblings, Puigdemont confirmed himself a staunch separatist at an early stage.
He by no means hid his breakaway tendencies, not even when he joined the conservative CDC occasion in 1980 at a time when it merely needed to barter larger autonomy for Catalonia, moderately than a full break from Spain.
“In Catalonia, many individuals grew to become separatists in an allergic response to Madrid’s insurance policies. Not him, he all the time had these convictions,” Antoni Puigverd, a poet and journalist who knew Puigdemont, stated in 2019.
For 17 years, Puigdemont labored for the area’s nationalist every day newspaper El Punt and was additionally mayor of town of Girona, a separatist stronghold, from 2011 to 2016.
A father of two, Puigdemont was elected to the Catalan presidency in 2016 with a mandate to guide it to independence.
Unknown outdoors of self-rule circles, he was thrust into the worldwide highlight in October 2017 when his govt held an outlawed referendum on self-determination, marred by police violence, that was adopted by a short-lived declaration of independence.
Madrid promptly sacked Puigdemont and his govt, dissolved the regional parliament, referred to as snap native elections and imposed direct rule on the semi-autonomous, rich northeastern area.
The central authorities declared the results of the vote illegal and Puigdemont was compelled to flee to Belgium, the place he has lived ever since to keep away from prosecution.
“To all those that needed to denigrate us, to silence us, I say to them that we’ll defend ourselves,” he stated whereas in exile.
Activists and Catalan “ministers” near Puigdemont had been arrested and sentenced to jail for sedition in 2019 throughout a trial held with out him. 9 had been pardoned in June by the federal government of present Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.
Though generally labelled by his detractors as a “fugitive” or “coward”, Puigdemont has continued to be concerned in politics along with his occasion Collectively for Catalonia, in addition to being elected as an MEP in 2019.
His alternative as Catalan chief, Pere Aragones, is taken into account a extra average pro-independence activist and his tenure has seen relations between Barcelona and Madrid turn into much less fraught.
The 58-year-old former journalist has lived in exile in Belgium for the reason that 2017 vote, needed by Spain accused of sedition.
He was arrested on arrival within the Italian island of Sardinia on Thursday and is anticipated to look in court docket on Friday at a listening to that would see him extradited to Spain after 4 years as a fugitive.
Born in Amer, a small mountainous village of two,200 folks in Catalonia, the second of eight siblings, Puigdemont confirmed himself a staunch separatist at an early stage.
He by no means hid his breakaway tendencies, not even when he joined the conservative CDC occasion in 1980 at a time when it merely needed to barter larger autonomy for Catalonia, moderately than a full break from Spain.
“In Catalonia, many individuals grew to become separatists in an allergic response to Madrid’s insurance policies. Not him, he all the time had these convictions,” Antoni Puigverd, a poet and journalist who knew Puigdemont, stated in 2019.
For 17 years, Puigdemont labored for the area’s nationalist every day newspaper El Punt and was additionally mayor of town of Girona, a separatist stronghold, from 2011 to 2016.
A father of two, Puigdemont was elected to the Catalan presidency in 2016 with a mandate to guide it to independence.
Unknown outdoors of self-rule circles, he was thrust into the worldwide highlight in October 2017 when his govt held an outlawed referendum on self-determination, marred by police violence, that was adopted by a short-lived declaration of independence.
Madrid promptly sacked Puigdemont and his govt, dissolved the regional parliament, referred to as snap native elections and imposed direct rule on the semi-autonomous, rich northeastern area.
The central authorities declared the results of the vote illegal and Puigdemont was compelled to flee to Belgium, the place he has lived ever since to keep away from prosecution.
“To all those that needed to denigrate us, to silence us, I say to them that we’ll defend ourselves,” he stated whereas in exile.
Activists and Catalan “ministers” near Puigdemont had been arrested and sentenced to jail for sedition in 2019 throughout a trial held with out him. 9 had been pardoned in June by the federal government of present Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.
Though generally labelled by his detractors as a “fugitive” or “coward”, Puigdemont has continued to be concerned in politics along with his occasion Collectively for Catalonia, in addition to being elected as an MEP in 2019.
His alternative as Catalan chief, Pere Aragones, is taken into account a extra average pro-independence activist and his tenure has seen relations between Barcelona and Madrid turn into much less fraught.
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