Oriol Junqueras

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Oriol Junqueras (2016)

Oriol Junqueras i Vies (born April 11, 1969 in Barcelona ) is a Catalan historian, publicist and politician ( Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya ).

Junqueras was a member of the European Parliament for the separatist left party Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC) from 2009 to 2012 . He has been party leader of the ERC since September 2011 and a member of the Catalan Parliament since 2012 . From January 2016 to October 2017, he was Vice President of the Catalan Regional Government. In October 2019, he was sentenced to 13 years in prison for "rioting" and misappropriating public funds in connection with the controversial independence referendum of October 1, 2017 .

Life

After studying modern and contemporary history, Junqueras did his doctorate at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) on economic thinking in early modern Catalonia. Later he worked as a university lecturer at UAB, worked on various radio and television programs and published various books on Catalan history. Since 2008 he has been running the Catalan online magazine directe.cat .

Political activity

Junqueras is close to Catalanism in his political activities . He is one of the founders of the organization Sobirania i Progrés (“Sovereignty and Progress”), which calls for Catalonia's independence from Spain. In 2003 he was placed as an independent candidate on the list of the Catalan left-wing nationalist party Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC) for the municipal council of Sant Vicenç dels Horts , in which he moved in 2005 as a successor. In 2007 he was again elected to the local council as an ERC top candidate. Here he spoke out publicly against the EU Constitutional Treaty and against the reform of the Catalan Statute of Autonomy in 2006, which did not go far enough for him.

At the end of January 2009 he was nominated by the Europa de los Pueblos - Verdes list as a top candidate for the 2009 European elections in Spain . In addition to the ERC, this list included other left-regionalist parties: the Galician BNG and the Basque Aralar , as well as the green Confederación de Los Verdes . Overall, the list connection reached a seat in the European Parliament , which was initially taken by Junqueras. However, due to the agreements of the member parties of the list, the seat rotated: In the first two and a half years, Junqueras took the seat, then Ana Miranda Paz (BNG) and Iñaki Irazabalbeitia (Aralar) for one year each and Pura Peris (Los Verdes) for the last six months of the legislative period.

Since the ERC to the European Free Alliance part (EFA) that a parliamentary group in the European Parliament with the European Greens forms to Junqueras joined the common fraction Greens / EFA on. During this time he was a member of the European Parliament's Committee on Petitions .

Junqueras was Mayor of Sant Vicenç dels Horts from June 2011 to December 2015 . He has been party chairman of the ERC since September 2011 and led it as the top candidate in the parliamentary elections in Catalonia in 2012 . As opposition leader in the Catalan parliament , he tolerated the minority government of the Convergència i Unió of Artur Mas , but put pressure on the minority government in financial, social, national identity and the question of a possible independence of Catalonia from Spain.

After the parliamentary elections in Catalonia in 2015 , Junqueras was Vice President and Minister of Economics and Finance of the Generalitat de Catalunya (Catalan regional government) from January 14, 2016 , before he joined President Carles Puigdemont and the rest of the Catalan crisis on October 28, 2017 Regional government was removed from office by the Spanish government under Mariano Rajoy .

Criminal proceedings and conviction

Since his impeachment, he has been charged by the Spanish judiciary for his involvement in the controversial independence referendum of October 1, 2017 . He was charged with "riot", "rebellion" and misappropriation of public funds. On November 2, 2017, he followed a summons to court and was taken into custody along with other members of the government because of an increased risk of escape; while other members of the government were later released on bail, the court refused to release Junquera. Proponents of independence refer to him as a "political prisoner". In its report of June 13, 2019, the UN Working Group against Arbitrary Detention criticized Junqueras' detention and called for his release. She found violations of the "exercise of human rights" and the "principle of a fair trial" and categorized the detention as "unlawful and discriminatory".

In December 2018, the ERC nominated Junqueras for number 1 on the electoral list for the 2019 European elections . The ECR also nominated Junqueras as the top candidate in the early election to the Spanish House of Commons in April 2019 . The party won 3.9 percent and 15 seats, including Junqueras. Although imprisoned, he had been allowed to go to Parliament and take his oath as a MP; however, parliamentary immunity does not cover acts prior to his election. In the European elections, which took place 4 weeks later, ERC joined Ahora República as a list affiliation together with other left, smaller parties and won 5.4 percent and thus 3 of the 59 Spanish seats. With this, Junqueras also won a mandate, it was duly published in the legal gazette of the Spanish state. However, the public prosecutor's office does not allow him to go through the formalities for accepting the mandate; the Supreme Court rejected a complaint and upheld the prosecution's view. Junqueras (as well as Puigdemont and Comin, who were elected to the European Parliament for JxC but are on the run from the Spanish judiciary) suspended his mandate without appointing a representative and sued the Spanish electoral commission, which did not make the appointment as MPs had confirmed.

On October 14, 2019, the Spanish judiciary sentenced him to 13 years in prison for "rioting" and misappropriating public funds in the context of criminal proceedings following the Catalonia crisis . The European Court ruled in December 2019 that Junqueras should be released because it already with the election as Members of the European Parliament on parliamentary immunity dispose, not only from office. A few days later, at the beginning of January 2020, the Spanish Central Electoral Committee contradicted this judgment and decided that Junqueras could not take up the office as a MP due to his final conviction. A little later, the Spanish Supreme Court ruled that the judgment of the European Court of Justice was invalid - the European Parliament then withdrew Junqueras' accreditation.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Long prison terms for Catalonia's separatist leader. In: Deutsche Welle online. October 14, 2019, accessed October 14, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Economia i pensament econòmic a la Catalunya de Alta Edat Moderna (1520–1630) (PDF, Catalan).
  3. ↑ El Periódico de Catalunya , January 26, 2009: ERC elige al independiente Oriol Junqueras como candidato a las elecciones europeas (Spanish).
  4. ↑ La Vanguardia , January 26, 2009: El historiador Oriol Junqueras, candidato de ERC para las europeas (Spanish).
  5. ↑ Thomas Urban : Catalan politicians remain in custody . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung of December 5, 2017, p. 8.
  6. ↑ Grupo de Trabajo sobre la Detención Arbitraria: Opinions aprobadas por the Grupo de Trabajo sobre la Detención Arbitraria en su 84º período de sesiones. Consejo de Derechos Humanos (UNO), June 13, 2019, accessed on May 16, 2020 (Spanish).
  7. ↑ a b Ralf Streck: Abnormal European Parliament is constituted. In: Telepolis. July 2, 2019, accessed July 7, 2019 .
  8. ↑ Lista de los 54 eurodiputados elegidos este domingo en España. May 26, 2019, accessed July 7, 2019 .
  9. ^ Iñaki Pardo Torregrosa: Junqueras no podrá acreditarse como eurodiputado por orden del Supremo. In: La Vanguardia. June 14, 2019, accessed July 7, 2019 (Spanish).
  10. ↑ El Nacional: Los escaños de Puigdemont, Comín y Junqueras quedarán vacíos a la espera de los tribunales europeos , July 13, 2019 (Spanish)
  11. ↑ Long prison terms for Catalonia's separatist leader. In: Deutsche Welle online. October 14, 2019, accessed October 14, 2019 .
  12. ↑ asc / cht / Reuters / dpa / AFP: Catalonia: Oriol Junqueras enjoys immunity as a member of the European Union, according to the ECJ. In: Spiegel Online . December 19, 2019, accessed May 15, 2020 .
  13. ↑ EU court says Spain should have freed Catalan MEP to take office . In: Al Jazeera , December 19, 2019. 
  14. ↑ la Vanguardia: La Junta Electoral resuelve que Junqueras no puede ser eurodiputado , January 3, 2020 (Spanish)
  15. ↑ El Pais: La Eurocámara acepta la decisión del Supremo y deja de reconocer a Junqueras como eurodiputado - El Parlamento Europeo establece que Junqueras no es parlamentario desde el 3 de enero , January 10, 2020 (Spanish)

Web links

Commons : Oriol Junqueras i Vies  - collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Junqueras, Oriol
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Junqueras i Vies, Oriol (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Spanish-Catalan historian and politician (ERC), MEP
DATE OF BIRTH April 11, 1969
PLACE OF BIRTH Barcelona , Spain