Jordi Cuixart i Navarro
Photo: User:Omar-MST, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons23

Jordi Cuixart i Navarro

Catalan businessman and activist (born 1975)

Jordi Cuixart i Navarro (born 22 April 1975) is a Catalan businessman and cultural activist. 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 2022.2

From Wikipedia’s article on Jordi Cuixart i Navarro (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Born Apr 22, 1975.1

About

As part of his role in the pro-independence demonstrations prior to the Catalan independence referendum of 2017, he was imprisoned from October 2017 until June 2021 under charge of sedition brought by the Spanish prosecutor's office. In October 2019, after two years of pre-trial detention, Cuixart was sentenced to nine years of prison for sedition. Amnesty International believes his detention and sentence constituted a disproportionate restriction on his rights to free speech and peaceful assembly, and urged Spain to free him. The NGO Front Line Defenders and the Council of Europe consider Jordi Cuixart a human rights defender. He repeatedly said that "as a political prisoner my priority is not getting out of prison, but the solution of the political situation and struggle for democracy and human rights". He was freed in June 2021 following a government pardon.

From Wikipedia’s article on Jordi Cuixart i Navarro, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2

Companies

Early life and education

  • Date not recordedInstitut Escola Industrial professional development3 4

Career

Occupation: businessperson, activist.4 9

  • 2018 to 2022Chairperson, Llull Federation6
  • 2015 to 2022President of Òmnium Cultural6 7
  • 2015 to 2022Chair, Òmnium Cultural8
  • Since 2003Chairperson, Aranow Packaging Machinery4 6
  • Date not recordedFounded Aranow Packaging Machinery5

Personal life

  • BornApr 22, 1975, Santa Perpètua de Mogoda4 10
  • CitizenshipSpain7 11
  • ResidenceSanta Perpètua de Mogoda, Sabadell12
  • SpouseTxell Bonet married 201613 14
  • Children215

Politics

He became the treasurer and later vice-president of Òmnium Cultural as an associate to Muriel Casals, who first became Òmnium's president in 2010 and was re-elected to the post in 2014. Under Casals' leadership, Òmnium Cultural's original focus in Catalan culture broadened to include the promotion of self-determination and Catalan independence. Jordi Cuixart succeeded Muriel Casals as president of Òmnium in December 2015, after she stepped down in July of that year to stand in the forthcoming Catalan election (in the meantime, the organisation was headed by Quim Torra as interim president).

As president of Òmnium Cultural, he focused on widening the sovereignist social majority, while maintaining a program where the Catalan language and culture vertebrate social cohesion. He promoted, among others, the Lluites compartides (Shared fights) campaign, with which he wanted to promote the shared historical memory of social mobilization processes that, in different areas and moments of time, have been decisive in shaping what is today Catalonia. Cuixart also continued the organisation's involvement in the political developments leading to the Catalan independence referendum of 2017. During this period, Spanish police searched Òmnium's main headquarters twice, and shut down websites promoting mobilization.

From Wikipedia’s article on Jordi Cuixart i Navarro (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Awards

  • 2023Saint George's Cross16 17
  • 201731 december Award16