Albert Botran

Botran was born on 14 January 1984 in Molins de Rei, Catalonia.^[2][3] He has a degree in history and a master's degree in comparative history from the Autonomous University of Barcelona.^[2][3]

Botran has been active in the leftist Catalan independence movement since 2002 and helped found the Molins de Rei branch of Popular Unity Candidacy (CUP) in 2007.^[3][4] He was a member of the CUP's national secretariat from 2009 to 2013 and from 2018 to 2019.^[2][3] Botran works for the Òmnium Cultural.^[3][4] In 2010 he won the 24th Francesc Carreras i Candi Award for his work Pensar Històricament els Països Catalans. La Historiografia i el Projecte Nacional dels Països Catalans (1960-1985).^[3][5]

Botran contested the 2011 local elections as a Popular Unity Candidacy–Active People (CUP-PA) electoral alliance candidate in Molins de Rei and was elected.^[6][7] Botran was one of the signatories of the October 2014 Nous Temps, Noves Eines - Per la Independència, pel Socialisme, pels Països Catalans: Ni un pas Enrere’, manifesto by leftist Catalan nationalists.^[8][9] The manifesto led to the formation, in November 2014, of Poble Lliure of which Botran is a member.^[3][4][10] He did not seek re-election at the 2015 local elections.^[11]

Botran contested the 2015 regional election as a CUP candidate in the Province of Barcelona and was elected to the Parliament of Catalonia.^[12][13] In February 2017 Botran attended an event in Castelló de Farfanya marking the 30th death anniversary of Catalan independence activist Julià Babia, a member of the Movement for Defence of the Land.^[14][15] As a consequence, in September 2017 the Spanish Attorney General started an investigation on charges of extolling terrorism against four members of Poble Lliure: Botran, Toni Casserras, Ferran Dalmau and Guillem Fuster.^[16][17] In December 2018 the Audiencia Nacional started investigating the case against the four and three others - Marcel·lí Canet, Marcel Casellas and Josep Maria Cervelló.^[18]

At the 2017 regional election Botran was placed 81st on CUP's list of candidates in the Province of Barcelona but the party only won three seats in the province and as a result he failed to get re-elected.^[19][20] He contested the 2019 November general election as a Popular Unity Candidacy–For Rupture candidate in the Province of Barcelona and was elected to the Congress of Deputies.^[21][22] In 2023 general elections he wasn't reelected.

• Les Proclames de Sobirania de Catalunya 1640-1936 (2009, Farell Editors, co-authors Adrià Cases and Oriol Junqueras)
• Pensar Històricament els Països Catalans. La Historiografia i el Projecte Nacional dels Països Catalans (1960-1985) (2010)
• Unitat Popular. La construcció de la CUP i l'Independentisme d'Esquerres (2012, Edicions El Jonc)^[3]
• Introducció a la Història dels Països Catalans (2014, Ediciones del 1979, co-authors Carles Castellanos and Lluís Sales; ISBN 9788494012679)