Raül Romeva i Rueda is a politician from Spain and a former Member of the European Parliament with the Iniciativa per Catalunya Verds, part of the European Greens. He sat on the European Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs and its Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality. In the Catalan parliamentary election of 2015 he led the pro-Catalan independence electoral list Junts pel Sí.
Oriol Junqueras i Vies is a Catalan politician and historian. 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). 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.
A non-binding Catalan self-determination referendum, also known as the Citizen Participation Process on the Political Future of Catalonia, was held on Sunday, 9 November 2014, to gauge support on the political future of Catalonia. While also referred to as "Catalan independence referendum", the vote was rebranded as a "participation process" by the Government of Catalonia, after a "non-referendum popular consultation" on the same topic and for the same date had been suspended by the Constitutional Court of Spain.
Maria Carme Forcadell i Lluís is a Spanish politician from Catalonia. She is the former President of the Parliament of Catalonia, as well as a Catalan high school teacher, known for her Catalan independence activism.
The 2017 Catalan regional election was held on Thursday 21 December 2017 to elect the 12th Parliament of the autonomous community of Catalonia. All 135 seats in the Parliament were up for election. The election was called by Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy after the invocation of Article 155 of the 1978 Spanish Constitution to enforce direct rule in Catalonia and the subsequent dismissal of the Catalan government under President Carles Puigdemont. The three pro-Catalan independence parties won a slim majority of parliamentary seats, claiming 70 out of 135, but fell short of a majority in the popular vote by securing 47.6% of the share.
Carles Puigdemont i Casamajó is a Catalan politician and journalist from Spain. He served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 2019 to 2024. A former mayor of Girona, Puigdemont served as President of Catalonia from 2016 to 2017 when he was removed from office by the Spanish Government following the unilateral Catalan declaration of independence. He is co-founder of the National Call for the Republic (CNxR), leader of the Together for Catalonia (JuntsxCat) electoral alliance and founder of the Together for Catalonia party.
Jordi Cuixart i Navarro is a Spanish businessman and cultural activist from Catalonia. He was the president of Òmnium Cultural, a non-profit cultural organisation founded in 1961 with more than 190,000 members and 52 local branches in Catalonia, from December 2015 to February 2022.
A constitutional crisis took place in Spain from 2017 to 2018 as the result of a political conflict between the Government of Spain and the Generalitat de Catalunya under the then-President Carles Puigdemont —the government of the autonomous community of Catalonia until 28 October 2017— over the issue of Catalan independence. It started after the law intending to allow the 2017 Catalan independence referendum was denounced by the Spanish government under Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and subsequently suspended by the Constitutional Court until it ruled on the issue. Some international media outlets have described the events as "one of the worst political crises in modern Spanish history".
Joaquim Forn i Chiariello is a Spanish politician and lawyer from Catalonia. A former deputy mayor of the city of Barcelona in north-eastern Spain, Forn served as Minister of the Interior from July 2017 to October 2017 when he was removed from office following the Catalan declaration of independence.
The Catalan declaration of independence was a resolution that was passed by the Parliament of Catalonia on 27 October 2017. While the text proclaims the independence of Catalonia from Spain and the establishment of an independent Catalan Republic, the declaration itself did not receive recognition from the international community and it produced no legal effect.
Dolors Bassa i Coll is an educator, educational psychologist and Spanish politician from Catalonia who held the position of Minister of Labour, Social Affairs and Families in the Generalitat de Catalunya until Spain dismissed the Catalan government on 27 October 2017. She is known for her syndicalist career in the major Spanish trade union, Unión General de Trabajadores. Since March 2018 she was remanded in custody, without bail, by order of the Supreme Court of Spain, accused of sedition and rebellion. She was sentenced on October 14, 2019, to 12 years in prison for sedition, as being responsible for devoting several thousand public schools as polling stations in the 1 October 2017 referendum. She was freed in June 2021 following a government pardon.
The Puigdemont Government was the regional government of Catalonia led by President Carles Puigdemont between 2016 and 2017. It was formed in January 2016 after the resignation of Puigdemont's predecessor Artur Mas and it ended in October 2017 with the imposition of direct rule following the Catalan declaration of independence.
Meritxell Borràs i Solé is a Spanish politician and pharmacist from Catalonia. Borràs served as Catalonia's Minister of Governance and Institutional Relations from June 2015 to October 2017 when she was removed from office following the Catalan declaration of independence.
Jordi Turull i Negre is a Spanish politician from Catalonia associated with Together for Catalonia. Since March 2018 he has been in pre-trial custody by order of the Supreme Court of Spain and accused of sedition and rebellion. On 10 July 2018 a Supreme Court judge suspended him as a deputy in the Catalan parliament.
Joaquim Torra i Pla, known as Quim Torra, is a Catalan lawyer and journalist from Spain. He served as President of the Government of Catalonia from 17 May 2018 to 28 September 2020, when the Supreme Court of Spain confirmed a court ruling by the High Court of Justice of Catalonia condemning him for disobeying the Central Electoral Board during the April 2019 general election, leading to his disqualification from office.
Elsa Artadi i Vila is a Spanish economist, academic and politician from Catalonia. Artadi is a member of the Parliament of Catalonia and was previously Minister of the Presidency and Government Spokesperson of Catalonia.
Ernest Maragall i Mira is a Spanish economist, politician, member of the Parliament of Catalonia and former Minister of Foreign Action, Institutional Relations and Transparency of Catalonia. He was previously Minister of Education, a member of the European Parliament and a member of Barcelona City Council (BCC).
Carles Mundó i Blanch is a Spanish lawyer and politician from Catalonia who served as the Minister of Justice of Catalonia until the dismissal of the Parliament of Catalonia and of the Catalan Government in 2017 due to its declaration of independence. He was reelected to the Catalan Parliament on 21 December 2017 as a member of the Catalonia Yes party until he resigned.
Josep Rull i Andreu is a Spanish politician from Catalonia serving as President of the Parliament of Catalonia since June 2024. He previously served as the Counselor of Territory and Sustainability of Catalonia at the Government of Carles Puigdemont between 2016 and 2017, when Spanish Rajoy's Government ceased the Catalan executive following the Catalan declaration of independence amid the application of Article 155 of the Spanish Constitution. Between 2 November and 4 December 2017, Rull was jailed and again on 23 March 2018. He was a member of the Catalan Parliament but on 10 July 2018 a Supreme Court judge suspended him as a deputy.
The trial of Catalonia independence leaders, legally named Causa Especial 20907/2017 and popularly known as the Causa del procés, was an oral trial that began on 12 February 2019 in the Supreme Court of Spain. The case was tried by seven judges and was chaired by judge Manuel Marchena. Judge Pablo Llarena had previously coordinated an instruction between October 2017 and July 2018, as a result of which 12 people were tried, including the previous vice president Oriol Junqueras of the regional government and most of the cabinet as well as political activists Jordi Sànchez and Jordi Cuixart and the former Speaker of the Parliament of Catalonia Carme Forcadell. Some defendants remained in pre-trial detention without bail from the beginning of the instruction process and have thus already served part of their sentence.
