Muriel Casals, one of the most prominent figures of the pro-independence movement in Catalonia has died today in Barcelona.

Muriel Casals i Couturier (Avignon, April 6, 1945) was a Catalan economist and politician. She was the president of Òmnium Cultural from 2010 to 2015. In 2015 she joined Junts pel Sí, the pro-independence list in the Catalan elections, becoming one of the leaders of the group.

Casals was a professor emeritus in the Department of Economics and Historical Economics in the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), where she was also vice dean of International Relations and Cooperation from 2002 to 2005. Casals specializes in industrial reconversions, the history of economic thought and European economics. Casals was also the representative of the UAB from 2002 to 2009 and a visiting professor at the University of Edinburgh, the London School of Economics and the University of Wales at Bangor.