Carles Puigdemont

Carles Puigdemont was president of Catalonia during the independence referendum of October 2017 and has lived in Belgium ever since. He was a journalist and editor from Girona, where he had been mayor, and became regional president in January 2016 as a compromise candidate committed to holding a vote on independence within eighteen months. The referendum of 1 October 2017 was held after the Constitutional Court declared it illegal; the national police were sent to close polling stations and the images of officers dragging voters out of schools travelled further than the result did. Turnout was about forty-three per cent with the opposition largely abstaining, and independence won ninety per cent of the votes cast. The Catalan parliament declared independence on 27 October, Madrid invoked Article 155 of the constitution to suspend Catalan autonomy and dissolve the parliament, and Puigdemont left for Brussels within days. Nine of his colleagues who stayed were tried for sedition and misuse of funds and sentenced to between nine and thirteen years; they were pardoned in 2021. Belgian, German and Italian courts all declined to extradite him on the terms Spain requested, the German court holding that the conduct did not amount to treason under German law, which effectively defeated the European Arrest Warrant in this case. He was elected to the European Parliament in 2019 and fought for years over his immunity. His seven votes made Pedro Sanchez prime minister in 2023 in exchange for an amnesty law, which passed in 2024 and which the courts have applied only partially. He remains outside Spain.

• Lived: 1962 CE – ?
• Nationality: Spanish
• Roles: politician