Lluís Maria Corominas i Díaz (born 14 February 1963) is a Catalan lawyer, politician and a former member of the

Parliament of Catalonia The Parliament of Catalonia (, ; ; ) is the Unicameralism, unicameral legislature of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Catalonia. The Parliament is currently made up of 135 members, known as Deputy (legislator), deput ...

. He is currently awaiting trial on charges of disobedience for his role in 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 ...

Early life

Corominas was born on 14 February 1963 in

Castellar del Vallès Castellar del Vallès () is a Spanish municipality of Catalonia in the comarca of Vallès Occidental. It is located 7 km from Sabadell and 11 km from Terrassa, the comarca's two capitals. Other villages near Castellar del Vallès are S ...

Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...

. He has a degree in law from the

Autonomous University of Barcelona The Autonomous University of Barcelona (; Spanish: ; ; UAB) is a public university mostly located in Cerdanyola del Vallès, near the city of Barcelona in Catalonia, Spain. , the university consists of 57 departments in the experimental, lif ...

and a diploma in public administration management from

ESADE Esade (Escola Superior d'Administració i Direcció d'Empreses) is an international private educational institution based in Barcelona, Spain. Esade runs two schools of the university, ESADE Business School, Esade Business School and ESADE Law Sch ...

Career

Corominas has worked as a lawyer for more than ten years. Corominas contested the 1991 local elections as a

Convergence and Union Convergence and Union (, CiU; ) was a Catalan nationalist electoral alliance in Catalonia, Spain. It was a federation of two constituent parties, the larger Democratic Convergence of Catalonia (CDC) and its smaller counterpart, the Democratic ...

(CiU)

electoral alliance An electoral alliance (also known as a bipartisan electoral agreement, electoral pact, electoral agreement, electoral coalition or electoral bloc) is an association of political parties or individuals that exists solely to stand in elections. E ...

candidate in

and was elected. He was re-elected at the

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

1999 1999 was designated as the International Year of Older Persons. Events January * January 1 – The euro currency is established and the European Central Bank assumes its full powers. * January 3 – The Mars Polar Lander is launc ...

and

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

local elections. He was mayor of Castellar del Vallès between 1992 and 2004 and vice-president of Vallès Occidental County Council from 1996 to 2003. Corominas was vice-president of Fons Català de Cooperació al Desenvolupament (Catalan Fund for Development Cooperation) and a national councillor of the Associació Catalana de Municipis (Catalan Association of Municipalities). He has also been vice-president of the Board of Trustees of the Fundación Ramon Trias Fargas (Ramon Trias Fargas Foundation). Corominas was secretary of the

Democratic Convergence of Catalonia The Democratic Convergence of Catalonia (; , CDC), frequently shortened as Convergence (; ) was a Catalan nationalist, liberal political party in Catalonia (Spain), currently still existing without any political activity. The party was originall ...

(CDC) from 2000 to 2004. He has been a member of the national executive committees of the CDC and

(CiU). Corominas contested the 2003 regional election as a CiU candidate in the

Province of Barcelona Barcelona (; ) is a province of eastern Spain, in the center of the autonomous community of Catalonia. The province is bordered by the provinces of Tarragona, Lleida, and Girona, and by the Mediterranean Sea. Its area is .Parliament of Catalonia The Parliament of Catalonia (, ; ; ) is the Unicameralism, unicameral legislature of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Catalonia. The Parliament is currently made up of 135 members, known as Deputy (legislator), deput ...

. He was re-elected at the

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

and

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

regional elections. Corominas was elected Second Vice-President of the Parliament of Catalonia in September 2008, replacing Ramon Camp i Batalla. He was elected First Vice-President of the Parliament of Catalonia in December 2010. In December 2012 he was elected Second Vice-President of the Parliament of Catalonia. He was elected First Vice-President of the Parliament of Catalonia in October 2015. In July 2017 he became president of the

Junts pel Sí Junts pel Sí (; , sometimes translated as "Together for the Yes"; JxSí) was a Catalan electoral, political and parliamentary alliance focused on achieving the independence of Catalonia from Spain. Established ahead of the 2015 Catalan regi ...

group in parliament, replacing Jordi Turull.

Catalan independence crisis

In June 2017,

President of Catalonia President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsidente ...

Carles Puigdemont Carles Puigdemont i Casamajó (; born 29 December 1962) is a Catalan politician and journalist from Spain. He has been the President of Together for Catalonia (Junts) since 2024, having previously held the office from 2020 to 2022. He served ...

announced that a

referendum A referendum, plebiscite, or ballot measure is a Direct democracy, direct vote by the Constituency, electorate (rather than their Representative democracy, representatives) on a proposal, law, or political issue. A referendum may be either bin ...

on Catalan independence would be held on 1 October 2017. The Catalan Parliament passed

legislation Legislation is the process or result of enrolling, enacting, or promulgating laws by a legislature, parliament, or analogous governing body. Before an item of legislation becomes law it may be known as a bill, and may be broadly referred ...

on 6 September 2017 authorising the referendum which would be binding and based on a simple majority without a minimum threshold. The following day

Constitutional Court of Spain The Constitutional Court () is the supreme interpreter of the Spanish Constitution, with the power to determine the constitutionality of acts and statutes made by any public body, central, regional, or local in Spain. It is defined in Part I ...

suspended the legislation, blocking the referendum. The

Spanish government The government of Spain () is the central government which leads the executive branch and the General State Administration of the Kingdom of Spain. The Government consists of the Prime Minister and the Ministers; the prime minister has the o ...

put into effect

Operation Anubis The Operation Anubis was a police operation in Catalonia, Spain, initiated on 20 September 2017 by the Civil Guard (Spain), Civil Guard following orders of the trial court number 13 of Barcelona, directed by judge Juan Antonio Ramírez Sunyer. Its ...

in order to disrupt the organisation of the referendum and arrested

Catalan government The Generalitat de Catalunya (; ; ), or the Government of Catalonia, is the institutional system by which Catalonia is self-governed as an autonomous community of Spain. It is made up of the Parliament of Catalonia, the President of the Governme ...

officials. Despite this the referendum went ahead though it was boycotted by unionists and turnout was only 43%. 92% of those who voted supported independence. Around 900 people were injured as the

Spanish police Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine ** Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

used violence to try to prevent voting in the referendum. On 27 October 2017 the Catalan Parliament declared independence in a vote boycotted by opposition MPs. Almost immediately the

Senate of Spain The Senate () is the upper house of the , which along with the Congress of Deputies – the lower chamber – comprises the Parliament of the Kingdom of Spain. The Senate meets in the Palace of the Senate in Madrid. The presiding officer of the ...

invoked article 155 of the constitution, dismissing Puigdemont and the

and imposing

direct rule In political science, direct rule is when an imperial or central power takes direct control over the legislature, executive and civil administration of an otherwise largely self-governing territory. Examples Chechnya In 1991, Chechen separat ...

on Catalonia. The following day

Spanish Prime Minister The prime minister of Spain, officially president of the Government (), is the head of government of Spain. The prime minister nominates the ministers and chairs the Council of Ministers. In this sense, the prime minister establishes the Gove ...

Mariano Rajoy Mariano Rajoy Brey (, ; born 27 March 1955) is a Spanish politician who served as Prime Minister of Spain from 2011 to 2018, when a 2018 vote of no confidence in the government of Mariano Rajoy, vote of no confidence ousted his government. A m ...

dissolved the Catalan Parliament and called for fresh regional elections on 21 December 2017. On 30 October 2017

Spanish Attorney General The Attorney General of the State ''(')'', or also, Prosecutor General, is the head of the Public Prosecutor's Office (''Ministerio Fiscal''), the independent body within the Judiciary, that is tasked with promoting the operation of justice in def ...

José Manuel Maza laid charges of

rebellion Rebellion is an uprising that resists and is organized against one's government. A rebel is a person who engages in a rebellion. A rebel group is a consciously coordinated group that seeks to gain political control over an entire state or a ...

sedition Sedition is overt conduct, such as speech or organization, that tends toward rebellion against the established order. Sedition often includes subversion of a constitution and incitement of discontent toward, or insurrection against, establ ...

and misuse of public funds at the

Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

against Corominas and five other members of the Board of the Parliament of Catalonia ( Ramona Barrufet,

Carme Forcadell Maria Carme Forcadell i Lluís (; born 29 May 1955) 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. She w ...

, Lluís Guinó,

Joan Josep Nuet Joan Josep Nuet i Pujals (born 6 August 1964) is a Spaniards, Spanish politician from Catalonia who previously served as Member of the Congress of Deputies of Spain. He was previously a member of the Senate of Spain and the Parliament of Catalon ...

and

Anna Simó Anna Simó i Castelló (born 26 July 1968) is a Spanish Catalan politician. A member of the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC), she became the Minister of Social Welfare and Family Affairs of the Generalitat de Catalunya in 2003 as part of the fi ...

). Corominas was charged despite not being a member of the board at the time of the declaration of independence. The charges carried maximum sentences of 30, 15 and 6 years in prison respectively. Corominas and the other members of the board appeared before Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena on 9 November 2017. Nuet was released without any precautionary measures but the other five had to pay bail (€100,000 for Forcadell, €25,000 each for Barrufet, Corominas, Guinó and Simó), surrender their passport and present themselves at a court weekly. The bail bonds were paid by the Catalan National Assembly. After a four-month judicial investigation into the referendum and declaration of independence Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena issued a 70-page ruling on 23 March 2018 in which he ordered that 25 of the 28 Catalan politicians and activists under investigation be tried for rebellion, embezzlement or disobedience. Corominas was charged with disobeying an order of the Constitutional Court (article 410 of the criminal code). A pre-trial hearing commenced on 18 December 2018 at the Supreme Court at which defence lawyers argued that the court was not competent to hear charges of rebellion or disobedience and that it should be heard at the

High Court of Justice of Catalonia The High Court of Justice of Catalonia () is the highest body and last judicial instance of the Spanish judiciary in Catalonia. Unlike the Parliament of Catalonia (legislative branch) or the Executive Council of Catalonia (executive branch), t ...

. On 27 December 2018 the Supreme Court ruled that, although they were competent to hear all the charges, the six defendants charged only with disobedience (Barrufet, Mireia Boya, Corominas, Guinó, Nuet and Simó) would be tried at the High Court of Justice of Catalonia.

Personal life

Corominas is married and has two daughters. He was a basketball player and has coached a women's basketball team in Castellar.

Electoral history

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Corominas, Lluís 1963 births Autonomous University of Barcelona alumni Catalan European Democratic Party politicians Lawyers from Catalonia Convergence and Union politicians Democratic Convergence of Catalonia politicians First vice-presidents of the Parliament of Catalonia Living people Mayors of places in Catalonia Members of the 7th Parliament of Catalonia Members of the 8th Parliament of Catalonia Members of the 9th Parliament of Catalonia Members of the 10th Parliament of Catalonia Members of the 11th Parliament of Catalonia Municipal councillors in the province of Barcelona People from Vallès Occidental Second Vice-Presidents of the Parliament of Catalonia