Rajoy vs Puigdemont: A profile of two leaders
Sky News looks at the lives of Mariano Rajoy and Carles Puigdemont, the two men at the centre of Spain's political crisis.
Sunday 29 October 2017 14:24, UK
One is a baker's son who has been a stringent advocate for independence since his youth - the other is a bullfighting and cigar aficionado at the forefront of Spanish politics for more than a decade.
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and Carles Puigdemont, the now deposed Catalan separatist leader, are at the centre of the country's deepest political crisis in decades.
They both carry scars from serious car accidents in their youth, but share little else in common:
MARIANO RAJOY
The 62-year-old Real Madrid fan was born in Santiago de Compostela in Galicia in the northwest of Spain.
At the age of 23, he became the youngest property registrar in Spain after entering the civil service.
Mr Rajoy sustained facial injuries in a serious car crash in the late 1970s and has always worn a beard to cover the scars.
He also survived a helicopter crash in 2005, after the aircraft went down shortly after take-off outside a bullring near Madrid. Mr Rajoy, then the opposition leader, walked away from the crash with a broken finger.
A social conservative, Mr Rajoy is a supporter of bullfighting and lifted a ban on screening the events on TV after he became prime minister.
Spain has become accustomed to his role at the forefront of politics, ever since he was selected in 2003 by former prime minister Jose Maria Aznar to succeed him.
A risk-averse politician often seen as the "dull but safe" option, he has been the prime minister since 2011, has lead his party, Partido Popular (PP), since 2004 and has helped to pull Spain back from the European economic crisis.
He was leader of the party in the aftermath of the Madrid train bombings on 11 March 2004, which took place three days before the general election.
The PP claimed that separatist terrorist organisation ETA was behind the bombings, but it later emerged that it was carried out by an al Qaeda terrorist cell.
The government was accused of hiding information to prevent linking the attack to Islamist groups following the decision to take Spain into the unpopular war.
PP had been leading in opinion polls, but it was the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), led by Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, that won the most seats and formed a minority government, with the bombings playing a role in the election outcome.
Detractors have claimed he has not done anything to stop separatist sentiment from surging in Catalonia.
He has been married since 1996 and has two children.
CARLES PUIGDEMONT
The 54-year-old is a former journalist who worked for various local newspapers in Catalonia after dropping out of university.
Born in Amer, Girona, he has been a fierce supporter of Catalan independence since his youth.
The second of eight brothers, Mr Puigdemont's parents ran a bakery business.
In 1983, aged 21, he too was involved in a serious car accident which left scars on his forehead that are covered by his Beatles mop-top hairstyle.
It was at that stage that he ended his studies into Catalan philology and began working as a journalist.
Mr Puigdemont still lives in Girona, around 60 miles northeast of Barcelona, and was the city's mayor in 2011.
But he only became head of the regional government in 2016, as a result of a compromise between the Together for Yes and CUP parties which wanted to replace then pro-independence leader Artur Mas.
At the time, Mr Puigdemont said it was an "accidental arrival through the back door".
Initially it was thought he would be manipulated in the role, at the head of a fragile coalition of separatist parties, but "Puigdi", as he was known to his friends, stamped his authority on his government by sacking right-wing members with differing views on independence.
He has said he would consider quitting politics if independence was achieved.
He has said he is willing to go to jail over his push for independence, adding: "There is nothing they can do to me [that will make me give up]."
Mr Puigdemont speaks Catalan, French, English, Spanish and Romanian and has been married to Romanian journalist Marcela Topor since 2000. The couple have two daughters.
