Josep Piqué

In his youth, and during the last years of the Franco's dictatorship Piqué was a member of extreme left organization Red Flag, and the Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia.[3][4]

Piqué was professor at the University of Barcelona between 1978 and 1986, being the tenured professor of Economic Theory from 1984 to 1986.[5][6] That year, Piqué was named by Catalan president Jordi Pujol, Director General of Industry, an office he held until 1988 when returned to the private sector.[4][1]

In view of the 1996 general elections, the leader of the People's Party (PP) and of the opposition José María Aznar wanted to improve his image in Catalonia and get closer to the business community and the Catalan bourgeoisie as it was a decisive territory in electoral terms.[1] So in 1995, through the president of the Catalan employers' association Foment del Treball Joan Rossell, he contacted Josep Piqué.[1]

Piqué and Minister of the Interior Jaime Mayor Oreja(left) in 2000

After the electoral victory of the PP, José María Aznar, already as Prime Minister, appointed him Minister of Industry and Energy as an independent politician on 5 May 1996, and was sworn the following day.[7][8] His main objective as minister, Piqué remarked that day, would be the reorganization of public enterprise, without ruling out privatization, in order to reduce the public deficit. He also referred to the reorganization of the electricity sector.[9]

Piqué was responsible for the privatizations of large public companies such as Repsol, Telefónica, Endesa and Aceralia.[2]

On 15 July 1998 he was appointed Spokesperson of the Government after rising as one of Aznar's most trusted men.[10][1]

In January 1999, he joined the People's Party, taking a place in its National Executive Committee. .[2]

In the 2000 general elections, Piqué became member of the Congress of Deputies for the province of Barcelona.[2]

Aznar appointed him, on 27 April, as the new Minister of Foreign Affairs, stepping down from the two previous positions he held.[11]

In this capacity, he also steered Spain's foreign policy during its six-month presidency of the Council of the European Union.[12]

Piqué maintained a clear atlanticist stance and defended Spain's coalition with the U.S. government that precipitated the 2003 invasion of Iraq.[1] In 2006 he admitted "very serious mistakes" in the invasion, although he added that the existence of weapons of mass destruction was a conviction shared by everyone.[13]

In the face of the 2002 Venezuelan coup d'état attempt, Piqué and the Spanish government maintained a position of support to the institutional legality represented by President Hugo Chávez, but did not treat the event as a coup d'état in spite of having mobilized the Ambassador in Venezuela to hold a meeting with Pedro Carmona. On 15 April he supported the return of Chávez as an "opportunity for democracy"[14] In 2004 Piqué assured that they believed that Carmona, at that time, had assumed the position of President of Venezuela when they were aware of a supposed resignation of Chávez.[15]

As part of a cabinet reshuffle, he was replaced by Ana de Palacio y del Valle-Lersundi and instead took over the Ministry of Science and Technology, which oversees the telecommunications industry. At the time, he was thought to have paid the price for failing to resolve the protracted dispute with the UK over the future of Gibraltar.[12]

During his mandate, he developed the Internet law and promoted the General Telecommunications Law.[16]

In those years he already began to be considered as a possible successor to Aznar in the leadership of the national People's Party, but he was finally sent to lead the People's Party of Catalonia.[17]

Piqué became president of the People's Party of Catalonia in 2002 and, being a candidate to the Catalan elections of 2003, had the objective of capturing the votes that could be obtained by the ruling Catalanist conservative Convergence and Union party, having maintained a very close relationship with the Catalan establishment.[1] He turned the PP of Catalonia towards a moderate and Catalanist conservative position, further away from the centralism defended by the national PP.[1] In fact, he succeeded in getting the PP to participate in the first negotiations of a new Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia.[1][18]

He resigned from this position in July 2007 after disagreement over the political direction that the central PP wanted to impose over the regional branch.[4][19]

Piqué was member of the Parliament of Catalonia between 23 December 2003 and 26 July 2007.[20] During this period of time, between 2003 and 2007, he was also senator appointed by the Catalan Parliament.[21][22][16]