Dolors Bassa

The Honourable
Dolors Bassa i Coll
Dolors Bassa i Coll
Counselor of Labour, Social Affairs and Families of Catalonia
In office
14 January 2016 – 27 October 2017
President Carles Puigdemont
Preceded by Felip Puig and Neus Munté
Succeeded by Chakir El Homrani
(Direct rule until 2 June 2018)
Member of the Parliament of Catalonia
for the Province of Girona
In office
26 October 2015 – 22 March 2018
General Secretary of Unión General de Trabajadores of Girona
In office
2008–2015
Councilor of Torroella de Montgrí
In office
2007–2015
Personal details
Born 1959 (age 58)
Torroella de Montgrí, Catalonia, Spain
Political party Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya
Junts pel Sí
Alma mater University of Girona
Open University of Catalonia
Profession Teacher and psychopedagogist

Dolors Bassa i Coll (born Torroella de Montgrí, 1959) is an educator, psychopedagogist and Spanish Catalan politician who held the position of Counselor of Labour, Social Affairs and Families from the Generalitat de Catalunya until 27 October 2017. She is renowned for her syndicalist career in the major Spanish trade union, Unión General de Trabajadores.[1][2] Since March 2018 she has been in custody by order of the Supreme Court of Spain, accused of sedition and rebellion[3]

Biography

Bassa graduated in Education from the University of Girona in 1979 and later on, in 2007, she would obtain a licentiate degree in Psychopedagogy from the Open University of Catalonia. She worked as a Catalan language teacher in Palafrugell from 1979 to 1986 and in Torroella de Montgrí from 1986 to 2015.[4]

As a politician, she started her career as a Councilor of Torroella de Montgrí for the Republican Left of Catalonia from 2007 to 2015. Bassa was also a member of the Generalitat's Vocational Training Council between 2007 and 2013, and also served on the steering committee of the Labour Services of the Generalitat (SOC) between 2006 and 2014.[5]

In 2000 she started her activities with the syndicate Unión General de Trabajadores, UGT. In 2008 she would be elected as a General Secretary of the UGT of Girona and would held the position until 2015.[6]

During the 2015 Catalan regional election, Dolors Bassa was the sixth candidate of the pro-independence political party Junts pel Sí of Girona and was elected as a member of the Parliament of Catalonia.

On 13 January 2016 she received the offer of becoming the Counselor of Labour, Social Affairs and Families by the government of Carles Puigdemont. Dolors Bassa accepted the position the following day.[2]

Catalan independence

She was dismissed on 27 October 2017, with the rest of the Catalan regional government, according to the article 155 of the Spanish Constitution, after being charged of several major constitutional infringements like declaring the independence of Catalonia.

On November 3, Bassa was sent to prison in Madrid, where she shared a cell with her parliamentary colleague Meritxell Borràs. While behind bars, she “started helping some of the convicts to work towards getting a diploma or school certificate.” She also obeyed orders to clean the halls while Borràs cleaned windows. She said that some prison workers were surprised at their willingness to work: “they thought that we would act ‘high and mighty’ and they saw that it wasn’t the case.”[7][8]

On November 11, her sister, Montserrat, appeared before a crowd in Torroella de Montgrí and issued a dramatic plea for Bassa's release.[9]

In early December, the Spanish Supreme Court ordered Bassa released along with four other Catalan parliamentarians, Jordi Turull, Josep Rull, Carles Mundó and Raül Romeva, provided they pay 100,000 euros in bail apiece. Bassa had spent 33 days in prison, but still faced the possibility of a long prison term.[10][11]

Thirteen days after her release from prison, Bassa said she did not feel free. “I feel a threat hanging above me, because they can still request up to 30 years in prison,” she told the Catalan News Agency (ACN). She said she felt “afraid,” but was “proud” of her political career with the ERC. While she planned to return to the Catalan Parliament, she said she would not accept a cabinet position. “After what I went through,” she said, “I don’t feel like it, my body is asking me not to.”[12]

On March 23, 2018, the magistrate of the Spanish High Court, Tribunal Supremo, Pablo Llarena sent her back to prison, together with the former president of Parliament Carme Forcadell and the ministers Raül Romeva, Josep Rull and Jordi Turull. Llarena argued for unconditional provisional bail after considering that was a risk of flight and reiteration of the crimes for which they were prosecuted.[13]

Personal life

She has two daughters.[14]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Dolors Bassa i Coll". Gran Enciclopèdia Catalana (in Catalan). Retrieved 27 October 2017.
  2. 1 2 "Dolors Bassa, consellera de Treball, Afers Socials i Famílies" [Dolors Bassa, Counselor of Labour, Social Affairs and Families]. Corporació Catalana de Mitjans Audiovisuals (in Catalan). 14 January 2016. Retrieved 27 October 2017.
  3. ↑ Jones, Sam (2018-03-23). "Spanish court remands Catalan presidential candidate in custody". the Guardian. Retrieved 2018-03-25.
  4. ↑ Llobet, Àlvar (11 January 2016). "PERFIL Dolors Bassa, una mestra sindicalista a la conselleria de Benestar" [Profile of Dolors Bassa, a syndicalist teacher as a Counselor of Labour]. Nació Digital (in Catalan). Retrieved 27 October 2017.
  5. ↑ Europa Press, ed. (13 January 2016). "Dolors Bassa, de UGT a Trabajo, Asuntos Sociales y Familias" [Dolors Bassa, from the UGT to Counselor of Labour, Social Affairs and Families]. 20minutos (in Spanish). Retrieved 27 October 2017.
  6. ↑ Puig, Oriol (5 August 2015). "Dolors Bassa dimitirà de la secretaria general de la UGT a Girona al setembre" [Dolors Bassa is going to resign as General UGT Secretary of Girona in September]. Diari de Girona (in Catalan). Girona. Retrieved 28 October 2017.
  7. ↑ Dolors Bassa: ‘Després del que he passat el cos no em demana tornar a ser consellera’; VilaWeb; December 17, 2017; https://www.vilaweb.cat/noticies/dolors-bassa-sento-que-no-tinc-llibertat-despres-del-que-he-passat-el-cos-no-em-demana-tornar-a-ser-consellera/
  8. ↑ ‘I feel like I’m not free,’ says minister after leaving prison; Catalan News; December 17, 2017; http://www.catalannews.com/politics/item/i-feel-like-i-m-not-free-says-minister-after-leaving-prison
  9. ↑ L’emotiu vídeo en què la germana de Dolors Bassa demana la llibertat dels consellers; VilaWeb; November 11, 2017; https://www.vilaweb.cat/noticies/lemotiu-video-en-que-la-germana-de-dolors-bassa-demana-la-llibertat-dels-consellers/
  10. ↑ Meritxell Borràs i Dolors Bassa, en llibertat després de 32 nits a la presó; Catalunya Radio; December 4, 2017; http://www.ccma.cat/324/meritxell-borras-i-dolors-bassa-en-llibertat-despres-de-32-nits-a-la-preso/noticia/2824974/
  11. ↑ Dolors Bassa: ‘Després del que he passat el cos no em demana tornar a ser consellera’; VilaWeb; December 17, 2017; https://www.vilaweb.cat/noticies/dolors-bassa-sento-que-no-tinc-llibertat-despres-del-que-he-passat-el-cos-no-em-demana-tornar-a-ser-consellera/
  12. ↑ ‘I feel like I’m not free,’ says minister after leaving prison; Catalan News; December 17, 2017; http://www.catalannews.com/politics/item/i-feel-like-i-m-not-free-says-minister-after-leaving-prison
  13. ↑ "El juez Llarena manda a prisión a Turull, Forcadell, Bassa, Rull y Romeva por riesgo de fuga". ELMUNDO (in Spanish). Retrieved 2018-03-25.
  14. ↑ Meritxell Borràs i Dolors Bassa, en llibertat després de 32 nits a la presó; Catalunya Radio; December 4, 2017; http://www.ccma.cat/324/meritxell-borras-i-dolors-bassa-en-llibertat-despres-de-32-nits-a-la-preso/noticia/2824974/
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