Pasqual Maragall i Mira
Encyclopedia
Pasqual Maragall i Mira (pəsˈkwaɫ məɾəˈɣaʎ; born January 13, 1941 in Barcelona
) is a Catalan
politician and was the 127th President of Generalitat de Catalunya (the government of Catalonia
). He had previously been Mayor of Barcelona
, from 1982 to 1997, and helped run the city's successful Olympic
bid.
. In 1965, he married Diana Garrigosa, and he has two daughters and a son. He was an active member of the Front Obrer de Catalunya (Workers' Front of Catalonia) and joined the left-wing anti-Franco movement Frente de Liberación Popular
(Popular Liberation Front). He studied Law
and Economics
at the UB between 1957 and 1964.
In 1965, after his studies, he joined the Specialist Office of Barcelona City Council as an economist, work he combined with giving classes in economic theory at the UAB, acting as assistant to the professor, Josep M. Bricall. He also cooperated with the Studies Service of the Banco Urquijo, run by Ramon Trias Fargas.
Between 1971 and 1973, he lived in New York
, where he gained a Master of Arts in Economics from the New School University.
in Baltimore
. This university would later appoint him doctor honoris causa.
.
In 1986, the Catalan capital was chosen to host the 1992 Summer Olympics
Accordingly, the city's mayor Pasqual Maragall presided over the organising committee (COOB'92). The Olympics provided the city with sorely-needed infrastructure. Another Maragall initiative, the 2004 Universal Forum of Cultures
, exhibited the same "top-down" approach. It is widely recognised, however, that the '92 Games helped Barcelona to redefine itself as one of the great cities of Europe.
From 1991 to 1997, he was President of the Council of Municipalities and Regions of Europe
. He was also Vice-President of the International Union of Local Authorities and President of the Committee of the Regions
of the European Union from 1996 to 1998.
and New York
. However, he came back to active politics and was elected as the PSC-CpC candidate for the presidency of the Generalitat
in the 1999 election.
In 2000, he was elected President of the Partit dels Socialistes de Catalunya (PSC-PSOE), and was a member of the Catalan Parliament from 1988 to 1995. From 1999 to 2003, he presided the PSC-CpC parliamentary group.
On 16 December 2003, Pasqual Maragall was elected President of the Generalitat by the Catalan Parliament after cliff-hanger negotiations with the ERC
and ICV parties. He finally took office on 20 December. While generally popular as Mayor of Barcelona, Maragall's career as President of the coalition government was marked by a series of crises. A particularly severe one involved First Minister Carod
's "secret" trip to France to unofficially negotiate with ETA
. Others include: the stormy negotiations over a new Statute of Autonomy for Catalonia
in which Maragall and the PSC hovered between a nationalist stance and caving in to central government pressure; the collapse of an entire city block in Barcelona's Carmel district following poorly-planned and executed tunnelling work; and a scheme supported by Maragall's government to build a tunnel for the AVE
high-speed train under the shaky foundations of Barcelona's 19th-century city centre. In October 2005 Maragall met with objections regarding his plans for reshuffling the cabinet without consulting either his coalition partners or his party. Ernest Maragall, the President's brother, was tipped for a ministerial post in the reshuffle. Ernest, who was seen by critics as an apparatchik
and held the post of Executive Secretary, whipped up a storm of protest in June 2005 when he opposed plans to make Catalonia's future anti-fraud department independent of the government. Pasqual Maragall's pledges to fight corruption and nepotism in public administration were one of the key planks in his 2003 election campaign.
On 21 June 2006, Maragall announced that he would not be standing for reelection (see Catalan Parliament election, 2006
). He offered his support to new President Jose Montilla amongst controversy over Montilla's non-Catalan heritage stating that is did not make Catalonia "less Catalan," and later commented that "our new homeland is Europe." He later stated "our new path is the Mediterranean."
On 19 October 2007, it was announced that he would not pay his PSOE membership fee anymore, ending three decades of activity within the party. The following day, he announced that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease
.
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
) is a Catalan
Catalonia
Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...
politician and was the 127th President of Generalitat de Catalunya (the government of Catalonia
Catalonia
Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...
). He had previously been Mayor of Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
, from 1982 to 1997, and helped run the city's successful Olympic
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
bid.
Early years
He was born in Barcelona in 1941 as the third of eight siblings. His grandfather was the Catalonian poet Joan MaragallJoan Maragall
Joan Maragall i Gorina was a Catalan poet, journalist and translator, the foremost member of the modernisme movement in literature.-Life:...
. In 1965, he married Diana Garrigosa, and he has two daughters and a son. He was an active member of the Front Obrer de Catalunya (Workers' Front of Catalonia) and joined the left-wing anti-Franco movement Frente de Liberación Popular
Popular Liberation Front (Spain)
The Popular Liberation Front was a clandestine anti-Francoist opposition group in Spain 1958-1969. FLP was founded by Julio Cerón. Amongst the personalities that joined FLP were José Luis Leal, Pasqual Maragall, José Pedro Pérez Llorca and Miguel Roca. FLP emerged as a response to the difficulties...
(Popular Liberation Front). He studied Law
Law
Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...
and Economics
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
at the UB between 1957 and 1964.
In 1965, after his studies, he joined the Specialist Office of Barcelona City Council as an economist, work he combined with giving classes in economic theory at the UAB, acting as assistant to the professor, Josep M. Bricall. He also cooperated with the Studies Service of the Banco Urquijo, run by Ramon Trias Fargas.
Between 1971 and 1973, he lived in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, where he gained a Master of Arts in Economics from the New School University.
Beginnings in politics
In 1973, he came back to Barcelona and returned to the Barcelona City Council and to the UAB, where he gave classes on urban economics and international economics as temporary assistant lecturer. One year earlier, he supported Convergència Socialista de Catalunya, one of the founding groups of the PSC. In 1978, at the Economics Faculty of the UAB, he presented his doctoral thesis The prices of urban land. The case of Barcelona (1948–1978). In 1978, he was a researcher and guest professor at the Johns Hopkins UniversityJohns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...
in Baltimore
Baltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
. This university would later appoint him doctor honoris causa.
First elections
He joined the PSC electoral list in the first democratic municipal election for Barcelona City Council in 1979 and this party won the most votes at the ballot box. His friend Narcís Serra became Mayor while he became tinent d'alcalde (Deputy Mayor) for Administrative Reform, and later for Taxation. On December 1, 1982 he succeeded Narcís Serra as Mayor of Barcelona, since Serra was appointed minister of Defence by the new Socialist government of Felipe GonzálezFelipe González
Felipe González Márquez is a Spanish socialist politician. He was the General Secretary of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party from 1974 to 1997. To date, he remains the longest-serving Prime Minister of Spain, after having served four successive mandates from 1982 to 1996.-Early life:Felipe was...
.
In 1986, the Catalan capital was chosen to host the 1992 Summer Olympics
1992 Summer Olympics
The 1992 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event celebrated in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, in 1992. The International Olympic Committee voted in 1986 to separate the Summer and Winter Games, which had been held in the same...
Accordingly, the city's mayor Pasqual Maragall presided over the organising committee (COOB'92). The Olympics provided the city with sorely-needed infrastructure. Another Maragall initiative, the 2004 Universal Forum of Cultures
2004 Universal Forum of Cultures
The 2004 Universal Forum of Cultures - was a 141-day international event that took place in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain from May 9 to September 26, 2004.-History:...
, exhibited the same "top-down" approach. It is widely recognised, however, that the '92 Games helped Barcelona to redefine itself as one of the great cities of Europe.
From 1991 to 1997, he was President of the Council of Municipalities and Regions of Europe
Council of European Municipalities and Regions
The Council of European Municipalities and Regions is the largest organisation of local and regional governments in Europe. Its members are national associations of towns, municipalities and regions from 39 countries...
. He was also Vice-President of the International Union of Local Authorities and President of the Committee of the Regions
Committee of the Regions
The Committee of the Regions is European Union's assembly of local and regional representatives that provides sub-national authorities with a direct voice within the EU's institutional framework....
of the European Union from 1996 to 1998.
Recent years
In 1997, Pasqual Maragall resigned as Barcelona's Mayor and returned to university lecturing in RomeRome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
and New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. However, he came back to active politics and was elected as the PSC-CpC candidate for the presidency of the Generalitat
Generalitat de Catalunya
The Generalitat of Catalonia is the institution under which the autonomous community of Catalonia is politically organised. It consists of the Parliament, the President of the Generalitat of Catalonia and the Government of Catalonia....
in the 1999 election.
In 2000, he was elected President of the Partit dels Socialistes de Catalunya (PSC-PSOE), and was a member of the Catalan Parliament from 1988 to 1995. From 1999 to 2003, he presided the PSC-CpC parliamentary group.
On 16 December 2003, Pasqual Maragall was elected President of the Generalitat by the Catalan Parliament after cliff-hanger negotiations with the ERC
Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya
The Republican Left of Catalonia is a left wing Catalan independentist political party in Spain. It is also the main sponsor of the independence movement from France and Spain in the territories known among Catalan nationalists as Països Catalans...
and ICV parties. He finally took office on 20 December. While generally popular as Mayor of Barcelona, Maragall's career as President of the coalition government was marked by a series of crises. A particularly severe one involved First Minister Carod
Josep-Lluís Carod-Rovira
Josep-Lluís Carod-Rovira was the Vice-president of the Catalan Government from 2006 to 2010. From 1996 to 2008 he was the leader of ERC Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya ....
's "secret" trip to France to unofficially negotiate with ETA
ETA
ETA , an acronym for Euskadi Ta Askatasuna is an armed Basque nationalist and separatist organization. The group was founded in 1959 and has since evolved from a group promoting traditional Basque culture to a paramilitary group with the goal of gaining independence for the Greater Basque Country...
. Others include: the stormy negotiations over a new Statute of Autonomy for Catalonia
Draft of New Statute of Autonomy for Catalonia of 2005
The Draft of New Statute of Autonomy for Catalonia of 2005 was a reform proposal regarding Catalonian self-government. The Autonomous Community of Catalonia is in the northeast corner of Spain....
in which Maragall and the PSC hovered between a nationalist stance and caving in to central government pressure; the collapse of an entire city block in Barcelona's Carmel district following poorly-planned and executed tunnelling work; and a scheme supported by Maragall's government to build a tunnel for the AVE
AVE
Alta Velocidad Española is a service of high-speed rail in Spain operated by Renfe, the Spanish national railway company, at speeds of up to . The name is literally translated from Spanish as "Spanish High Speed", but also a play on the word , meaning "bird".AVE trains run on a network of...
high-speed train under the shaky foundations of Barcelona's 19th-century city centre. In October 2005 Maragall met with objections regarding his plans for reshuffling the cabinet without consulting either his coalition partners or his party. Ernest Maragall, the President's brother, was tipped for a ministerial post in the reshuffle. Ernest, who was seen by critics as an apparatchik
Apparatchik
Apparatchik is a Russian colloquial term for a full-time, professional functionary of the Communist Party or government; i.e., an agent of the governmental or party "apparat" that held any position of bureaucratic or political responsibility, with the exception of the higher ranks of management...
and held the post of Executive Secretary, whipped up a storm of protest in June 2005 when he opposed plans to make Catalonia's future anti-fraud department independent of the government. Pasqual Maragall's pledges to fight corruption and nepotism in public administration were one of the key planks in his 2003 election campaign.
On 21 June 2006, Maragall announced that he would not be standing for reelection (see Catalan Parliament election, 2006
Catalan Parliament election, 2006
Elections to the Parliament of the Autonomous Community of Catalonia, Spain, were held on November 1, 2006.-Background:The November 2006 Catalan parliament election was an early one...
). He offered his support to new President Jose Montilla amongst controversy over Montilla's non-Catalan heritage stating that is did not make Catalonia "less Catalan," and later commented that "our new homeland is Europe." He later stated "our new path is the Mediterranean."
On 19 October 2007, it was announced that he would not pay his PSOE membership fee anymore, ending three decades of activity within the party. The following day, he announced that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease also known in medical literature as Alzheimer disease is the most common form of dementia. There is no cure for the disease, which worsens as it progresses, and eventually leads to death...
.