Oriol Junqueras i Vies

Oriol Junqueras i Vies ( born April 11, 1969 in Barcelona) is a Catalan historian, publicist and politician. He is a member of the European Parliament for the Catalan- left nationalist party ERC and since September 2011 party chairman.

After studying Modern History Junqueras his PhD at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona ( UAB ) about economic thought in the early modern Catalonia. Later he worked as a university lecturer at the UAB and worked in various radio and television broadcasts and published with several books on the Catalan history. Since 2008 he leads the Catalan Onlie magazine directe.cat.

In his political activity Junqueras stands near the Catalanism. He is a founder of the organization Sobirania i Progrés ( "Sovereignty and Progress" ), which calls for the independence of Catalonia from Spain. In 2003, he was set up for the local council of Sant Vicenç dels Horts as an independent candidate on the list of Catalan- left nationalist party Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya ( ERC), in which he moved in 2005 as substitutes. In 2007 he was again chosen as the ERC top candidate in the municipal council. Here, he spoke out publicly against the EU Constitutional Treaty and the Reform of the Catalan Statute of Autonomy of 2006, which did not go far enough to him.

End of January 2009, he was from the list Europe de los Pueblos - nominated Verdes as the leading candidate for the European elections in Spain in 2009. This list included not only the ERC further linksregionalistische parties, namely the Galician BNG and the Basque Aralar, as well as the green Confederación de Los Verdes. Overall, they achieved a seat in the European Parliament, which was first occupied by Junqueras. Due to the agreements of the member parties of the list, the seat but rotate: It is expected that it Junqueras in the first two and a half years, Ana Miranda ( BNG) and Iñaki Irazabalbeitia ( Aralar ) then for one year and Pura Peris (Los Verdes ) in the last six take months of its term.

Since the ERC to the European Free Alliance (EFA ) is forming a parliamentary group with the Greens in the European Parliament, to Junqueras joined the common fraction of Greens / EFA. He is a member of the Petitions Committee of the Parliament.