lit a candle 14h agoJust saw this on the news ticker. Didn't know much about him but the Catalonia stuff always stuck with me.
Their story
Josep Pinyol i Balasch was a Catalan historian, political analyst, businessman and independence activist. Born in Cornellà de Llobregat in 1952, he spent more than five decades in the left-wing Catalan nationalist movement and, late in life, served two terms on the national secretariat of the Assemblea Nacional Catalana (ANC),…
Josep Pinyol i Balasch was a Catalan historian, political analyst, businessman and independence activist. Born in Cornellà de Llobregat in 1952, he spent more than five decades in the left-wing Catalan nationalist movement and, late in life, served two terms on the national secretariat of the Assemblea Nacional Catalana (ANC), the grassroots organisation that has led the mass mobilisations for Catalan independence.
Pinyol graduated in modern and contemporary history from the University of Barcelona. In the years of the transition to democracy he was active in Convergència Socialista de Catalunya and then in the Partit Socialista de Catalunya-Congrés. When that party became the Catalan federation of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party, he moved to Nacionalistes d'Esquerra, alongside figures such as Jordi Carbonell, Magda Oranich and Josep Maria Espinàs.
As a writer and analyst he focused on the strategy and economics of independence. His books included Sobirania nacional (1982), República Catalana (1991), which he coordinated, Concert econòmic, una barrera al saqueig de Catalunya (1993), La declaració unilateral d'independència (2010) and Tornem-ho a fer! Mobilització i desobediència civil fins a un acord de pau (2023). At the Third Catalanist Congress in 2009 he presented a paper on independence and the economic crisis. He also wrote regularly for Nació Digital, VilaWeb and El Punt Avui.
Within the ANC he was a long-standing member of the territorial assemblies of the Baix Llobregat, above all in his home town of Cornellà. He was elected to the national secretariat for the 2022 to 2024 and 2024 to 2026 terms. In the second term he coordinated the Commission for Strategy and Discourse and played a leading part in drafting the organisation's road map. He was known as a firm advocate of non-violent civil disobedience and of confrontation with the Spanish state as the route to independence.
Pinyol died on Friday 9 October 2026. The ANC announced his death on social media, recalling him as a firm defender of civil disobedience. Its president, Josep Vila, described him as a much loved companion, a rigorous historian and a committed fighter until his last breath. The singer and former ANC president Lluís Llach also paid tribute. The cause of death was not made public.
Biography adapted from Viquipèdia (CC BY-SA 4.0), VilaWeb, Nació, Europa Press and CatalunyaPress (9 October 2026).
In their own words
“Un company molt estimat, un historiador rigorós i un lluitador compromès, fins al darrer alè, per la plena llibertat del nostre poble.”
ANC president Josep Vila on X, 9 October 2026
Photos
1Josep Pinyol i Balasch
by People Forever
He wrote the book on the unilateral declaration, 2010. Worth a look.