Who is Carles Puigdemont, the unexpected driver of the failed process of independence of Catalonia

Carles Puigdemont was mayor of Girona when he was unexpectedly catapulted into the head of the Catalan government, and it was he who proclaimed an independence of Catalonia that never materialized.

Born in Amer, a mountainous town of 2,200 inhabitants 100 km from Barcelona where his family keeps his parents’ pastry shop, Puigdemont, 58, the second of eight siblings, has defended independence for decades, when it was residual.

“In Catalonia many have become independentists due to an allergic reaction to the policies of Madrid. But not him, he has always had these convictions ”, explains his old friend, the columnist Antoni Puigverd.

Married to a Romanian journalist and father of two girls, Puigdemont was practically unknown when he assumed the regional presidency in January 2016, with the only political experience of five years as mayor of Girona, a great independence fiefdom, and professional as director of a regional newspaper.

His face hit the world stage in October 2017.

Puigdemont had unexpectedly come to the presidency of the Catalan regional government in 2016, from the mayoralty of Girona, due to the resignation of Artur Mas, after appearing in positions far from the head in the lists of regional elections.

It was up to him to lead an independentist movement in full swing that was not willing in 2017 to settle for less than secession.

After proclaiming it, and suspending it pending negotiations, the Spanish government of Mariano Rajoy intervened the regional administration and called regional elections, thus invalidating the attempt.

Puigdemont settled in Brussels, demanded by the Spanish justice, in contrast to his government colleagues who ended up being tried and convicted, such as his vice president Oriol Junqueras, sentenced to 13 years in prison and finally pardoned in 2021 by the Spanish government of Pedro Sánchez, like the rest of the defendants.

Flight to Belgium

He left behind his colleagues in the government, sitting in 2019 in the dock in a macroprocess in the Supreme Court.

Among them was his number two in the executive, Oriol Junqueras, whom, in the absence of the former president, the prosecution identifies as the main responsible for the rebellion.

Numerous witnesses in the process, however, located Puigdemont at the peak of the operation, such as when, according to several police officers, he decided to maintain the referendum despite being warned of possible disturbances.

He followed the trial from a distance, normally installed in the so-called ‘House of the Republic’, a mansion located in Waterloo, the Belgian city famous for the defeat of Napoléon in 1815.

Comparisons with Junqueras, with whom he was fighting to lead the independence movement that leaned in favor of him, whose ERC party won the 2021 regional elections, have been a constant, especially from his rivals who accuse him of “fugitive” and “Coward”.

But neither the criticism nor the months of media attention focused on his former colleagues managed to completely separate him. Puigdemont and his party, Junts per Catalunya, necessary for ERC (Republican Left of Catalonia) to have a majority in the regional parliament.