Oriol Junqueras

Oriol Junqueras i Vies (born 11 April 1969) is a Catalan politician and historian.

Born in 1969 in Barcelona, Junqueras grew up in the municipality of Sant Vicenç dels Horts.

After graduating from the Autonomous University of Barcelona, he taught history at the university.

Junqueras was born on 11 April 1969 in Sant Andreu de Palomar, a neighbourhood in the Sant Andreu district of Barcelona, Spain.

His father was a high school teacher and his mother was a nurse.

Aged two, he and his family moved to Sant Vicenç dels Horts in Baix Llobregat.

His parents were persuaded by a nun to send him to the Liceo Italiano in Barcelona where he learned Italian.

As a youngster he worked in the family's almond and olive orchards in Castellbell i el Vilar, Bages.

Junqueras claims he started supporting Catalan independence when he was eight years old.

After school he joined the University of Barcelona, where he was an activist in the student union, to study economics but before completing the course, transferred to the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), graduating with a bachelor's degree in modern and contemporary history in 1996.

He then decided to continue in academia by pursuing a PhD at UAB.

He has co-authored several books including Els Catalans i Cuba (1998), La Batalla de l'Ebre (1999) and La Presó Model de Barcelona (2000).

He is a member of the Center Excursionista of Sant Vicenç dels Horts and Orfeó Vicentí.

In 2002, Junqueras graduated with a doctorate in History of Economic Thought from UAB, where he later lectured in "Premodern History of East Asia" and "Bases of the Modern World" at the Department of Modern and Contemporary History.

His PhD thesis was about economic thought in early modern Catalonia.

He has also been invited to lecture at the University of Vic while in prison.

Junqueras contested the 2003 local elections as a Republican Left of Catalonia-Acord Municipal (ERC-AM) electoral alliance candidate in Sant Vicenç dels Horts but failed to get elected.

He has been an advisor and scriptwriter to a variety of Catalan radio and television programmes on politics and history, including Conviure Amb el Risc, El Favorit (TV3, 2005), En Guàrdia and El Nas de Cleòpatra (Catalunya Ràdio), Els Maquis, La Guerra Silenciada and Minoría Absoluta and El Món (RAC 1).

He contested the 2007 local elections as an ERC-AM candidate in Sant Vicenç dels Horts and was elected but the ERC-AM remained in opposition.

He was elected a member of the European Parliament (MEP) in 2009, a seat he held until January 2012.

As a supporter of Catalan independence, Junqueras joined ERC in 2010.

Three years before, he had been elected to the Municipality Council of Sant Vicenç dels Horts for the same party, and in 2011 he became mayor.

In 2012 he was elected as a member of the Parliament of Catalonia for the Province of Barcelona.

A former mayor of the municipality of Sant Vicenç dels Horts in Catalonia, Junqueras served as Vice President of Catalonia from January 2016 to October 2017, when he was removed from office following the Catalan declaration of independence and entered prison until June 2021 for his role in organizing the 2017 Catalan independence referendum.

He is president of the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC).

In January 2016, following an agreement between the Junts pel Sí (JxSí), an electoral alliance of which ERC was a part, and the Popular Unity Candidacy (CUP), Junqueras was appointed Vice President of Catalonia.

On 1 October 2017, an independence referendum was held in Catalonia despite the Constitutional Court of Spain ruling that it breached the Spanish constitution.

Ninety-two percent supported independence, though turnout was only 43%.

Catalan government officials argued that the turnout would have been higher were it not for Spanish police suppression of the vote.

On the other hand, many voters who did not support Catalan independence did not turn out, as the constitutional political parties asked citizens not to participate in what they considered an illegal referendum.

The Catalan Parliament declared independence on 27 October 2017, which resulted in the Spanish government imposing direct rule on Catalonia, dismissing the Executive Council of Catalonia.

The Catalan Parliament was dissolved, and fresh elections called.

On 30 October 2017, charges of rebellion, sedition, and misuse of public funds were brought against Junqueras and other members of the Puigdemont government.

On 2 November 2017, Junqueras and seven other Catalan ministers were remanded in custody by the Audiencia Nacional.

Six of the ministers were released on bail on 4 December 2017, while Junqueras and Minister of the Interior Joaquim Forn were kept in custody.

At the 2017 Catalan regional election held on 21 December, Junqueras was re-elected to Parliament and Catalan pro-independence parties retained an absolute parliamentary majority.

Junqueras was suspended as an MP by a Supreme Court judge on 10 July 2018.

On 14 October 2019, he was sentenced to 13 years in prison and a 13-year ban from holding public office for the crimes of sedition and misappropriation of public funds.

The European Court of Justice ruled on 19 December 2019 that Junqueras had parliamentary immunity as he was an elected MEP, and should have been released from prison.

He was freed in June 2021 following a Spanish government pardon after he had served 3 and a half years.