Josep Tarradellas i Joan

Who was Josep Tarradellas i Joan?

Josep Tarradellas i Joan, 1st Marquess of Tarradellas was a Spanish politician.

In 1931 he became general secretary of the Republican Left of Catalonia. He also was deputy at the Cortes this year, Government and Sanity councillor when Francesc Macià was President of the Generalitat of Catalonia as well as Public Services, Economy and Culture councillor during the Spanish Civil War.

Exiled to France since 1939, he became President of the Generalitat of Catalonia when Josep Irla resigned, in 1954.

Two years after Francisco Franco's death, the President of the Spanish Government Adolfo Suárez met him to negotiate the reestablishment of the Generalitat of Catalonia, an event which occurred on October 1977. The sentence pronounced at his arrival has become really famous in a symbolic way: "Ciutadans de Catalunya, ja sóc aquí!".

He was welcomed solemnly in Barcelona and set up a unity government. He finished his work with the elections for the Catalan Parliament, and Jordi Pujol was elected in April.

On July 24, 1986 Tarradellas received the hereditary title marqués de Tarradellas from King Juan Carlos I. Tarradellas died in Barcelona in 1988.