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Carme Ballester i Llasat (Barcelona, 27th of April 1900 — Paris, 7th of March 1972) was an activist for women rights, a republican, from the left, and the second wife of the president of the Government of Catalonia, Lluís Companys.

The beginning of a life of activism in politics
Carme Ballester i Llasat was born in Barcelona, on the 27th of April 1900. She was orphaned of her father and mother when when he was very young and her aunt took care of her. She was lucky enough to be welcomed by the Broggi family, who made her the manager of one of the family stores and opened the doors to her surroundings. This is how she met her first husband, Joan Duran, who was active in the Estat Català-Partit Proletari and through him, she became interested in politics and joined the same party. At Casal d'Esquerra de la Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes, she became responsible for the women's section. After divorcing Joan Duran, she maintained a love affair with Miquel Badia, founder of the Joventuts d'Esquerra Republicana-Estat Català (JEREC) who was murdered by FAI gunmen in April 1936.

From activist to "first-lady" of Catalonia
The relationship between Ballester and Companys came to light during the events of October 6, 1934 when she refused to leave the Palau de la Generalitat to stay with President Companys. After these events, Companys was arrested and sent to the El Puerto de Santa María prison (Cádiz), and Carme Ballester traveled with the wives of the other prisoners to visit him.

A year later, and with the victory of the Popular Front (February 1936), Lluis Companys is released and returns to the presidency of the Generalitat. At this moment, it will begin to be fun to see Ballester accompanying President Companys in different acts and public events; in the delivery of the Macià Column flag to lieutenant colonel Bosch, in the football match of the Catalonia and Valencia national teams or in the concerts of Pau Casals at the Liceu.

On October 5, 1936, three months after the outbreak of the civil war, she married Lluís Companys. The judge Server Gibert Piera officiated the ceremony with the Minister of Culture, Ventura Gassol, and Manuel Companys, brother of the president, as witnesses.

On June 3, 1937, she made her first public appearance as "first lady" in a tribute to the victims of the Gernika bombing. In these times of uncertainty, she was honorary president of La Dona a la Rereguarda and collaborated with the Propaganda Commission led by Jaume Miravitlles, getting involved in those activities aimed at reducing the suffering of children.

Exile and execution of Companys
On April 3, 1938, with the occupation of Lleida and the abolition of the Statute of Autonomy, the fall of Barcelona seems imminent. It was then, on April 6, 1938, that he decided to embark on the path of exile together with Maria Companys, the president's daughter, Antònia Macià, the wife of Josep Tarradellas, and other relatives of high officials of the Generalitat.

During the Spanish Civil War, she settled in Paris to be close to Lluís Companys i Micó (in Lluïset), admitted to a psychiatric clinic, since he had been diagnosed with severe schizophrenia.

With the fall of Barcelona, on January 24, 1939, Lluís Companys went into exile and on February 9, 1939. Carmen and him both met again in the French capital.

They decided to stay in France where Companys and Ballester settled in a small house in Ar Baol-Skoubleg (in Brittany), the rent was assumed by Joan Casanella from ERC. A nephew of Carme, Francesc Ballester, also lives there. They will be arrested together on August 13, 1940.

The day after Companys' arrest, Carme Ballester takes her bicycle to the German Kommandatur where she is told that they know nothing about her husband, but before leaving, a Frenchman discreetly tells her to go to Ville Caroline. When she gets there, the soldiers block her way, but she tells them she has a meeting with an officer and they let her in. That how she managed to see, for a few seconds, Company before they take him away.

When she tried to run towards him to approach him, an officer stops her and she screams, catches the attention of Company's who with a wave of his hand tells her "Get out of here!".

She never saw him again. She moved heaven and earth for someone to intercede for her husband; she wrote to Marshal Pétain, the Archbishop of Paris and the Spanish ambassador.

It was useless. On October 14, 1940, Lluis Companys was sentenced to death. Carme Ballester learned that her husband had been shot by radio on October 16, 1940. When she heard the news, she lost consciousness.

Resistance in France
After the shooting of her husband, her priority was to find Lluïset who had disappeared in May 1940 during the Nazi invasion. Due to the German occupation, the medical team of the center where he was admitted decided to evacuate the inmates and in the midst of the chaos of a bombardment, Lluïset was lost. This led his father to stay in France, precipitating his arrest and execution. Ballester's perseverance in finding Lluïset paid off, and after placing advertisements in different newspapers she learned that the young man was admitted to a psychiatric hospital in Llemotges. It turned out that, after the bombings, the young man wandered the streets and roads until the French authorities integrated him into a work company to open trenches. Since the young man did not adapt, he was beaten, until a doctor realized his disorder and he was transferred to the psychiatric hospital, where he was finally found by Carme. She took care of Lluís Companys and Micó until she died in 1956 at the age of 45. In mid-1942 Ballester decided to leave Ar Baol-Skoubleg and move to Paris to be closer to Lluïset. It is during this time that she began to establish contacts with prominent members of the French Resistance such as Colonel Lizet and General Delestraint who participated actively and decisively in the liberation of Paris. Risking her life, she hid, fed and even helped those persecuted by the Gestapo escape, mostly Jews. She suspected that the German secret police were following her, so she had to be extremely cautious in all her movements.

End of World War II and recognitions
After World War II, she was recognized by De Gaulle as a member of the French Resistance. They awarded her two copper medals with the inscription: “''Libération de Paris. Le colonel Lizé à ses compagnons d'armes. 19-28 Août 1944. Mme Companys''”.

The victory parade was a particularly exciting day for Carme Companys, as she was known at the time. Located in the official tribune, she received a large amount of flowers from the hand of republicans who, parading next to De Gaulle, carried a large banner. From Paris, Carme Ballester worked tirelessly with the Committee to Help the Spanish Republicans.

She also persevered in restoring the honor and keeping the memory of her husband alive, which is why, after the liberation of Paris, she organized a mass in the parish of Saint Honoré on October 14, 1944.

The hardships of exile
In exile, Carme Ballester received, from the Government of the Generalitat, a pension of 10,000 francs a month, but this money was insufficient to pay for Lluiset's psychiatric hospital and to deal with a serious operation for their child, the amputation of a leg. The Basque government-in-exile also granted her a pension of 10,000 francs at most, but the whole thing was not enough to cover the expenses. The resources she had are so meager that she is forced to sell her clothes, to clean the houses of the wealthiest families in the neighborhood and to work in a sewing workshop. In the 1960s, the Generalitat's resources were even more scarce and Ballester's health began to weaken. Without resources and in debt, she had to resort to the help of friends who started a collection of funds among the Catalan exiles in France and America. In 1968, she even received money from General De Gaulle, President of the French Republic.

Death and return of remains to Catalonia
Carme Ballester was only able to enjoy the widow's pension as a victim of Nazism for a year and a half. Josep Maria Batista i Roca and Manuel Viusà i Camps, members of the Catalan National Council (CNC), were the ones who convinced her to apply for this aid to which she was entitled.

On March 7, 1972, at aged 71, Carme Ballester died at the Ambroise Paré hospital in Boulogne. Having left the funeral paid for and the obituaries to be published in Le Figaro and Le Monde redacted, she was buried in the Saint-Mandé cemetery in Paris, next to Louis. Both his death and his funeral went largely unnoticed.

On February 24, 1998, her remains were transferred to Barcelona and were buried in the Montjuïc Cemetery on March 3 with the assistance of the then president Jordi Pujol, the president of the Parliament of Catalonia, Joan Reventós, and the mayor from Barcelona, Joan Clos.