Salvador Illa is the Socialist president of Catalonia, Spain's largest and richest region. He leads a minority government after an election that deprived the separatist parties of a majority in the regional parliament for the first time since 2010. Carles Puigdemont, the fugitive former president, remains a symbolic figure for the independence camp.
Mr Illa's Catalanism is cultural rather than political and non-confrontational. His approach harks back to that of Jordi Pujol, the founder of modern Catalan nationalism, which may help him win over disillusioned former supporters of independence. He has set himself the task of normalising Catalonia after the failed 2017 secession bid, describing the past eight years as "a process of digestion". He has said: "There have to be forms of generosity and détente. The underlying motive is to return to the realm of politics things that should never have left it."
In return for the support of Esquerra, the most pragmatic of the pro-independence parties, for his investiture, Mr Illa promised to obtain a better regional financing deal from Madrid (from Pedro Sánchez's government). Since other regions are opposed, achieving this is not easy. Without it, he will find it hard to get his budget approved.
You get along very well with everyone except animals and people.