Miguel Urbán

Miguel Urbán Crespo (born 26 March 1980) is a Spanish activist and politician. A longstanding figure of the Trotskyist Izquierda Anticapitalista platform (renamed as Anticapitalistas after 2015) and co-founder of Podemos, he serves as Member of the European Parliament since 2015, integrated within the European United Left–Nordic Green Left political group.

Miguel Urbán
Member of the European Parliament
Assumed office
5 March 2015
ConstituencySpain
Personal details
Born26 March 1980 (1980-03-26) (age 43)
Madrid, Spain
Political partyPodemos (2014–2020)
Anticapitalist Left / Anticapitalistas
Alma materComplutense University of Madrid
OccupationPolitician, activist, librarian

Biography

Born on 26 March 1980 en Madrid,[1][2] he is son of Luis Miguel Urbán Fernández, a member of the trotskyist Revolutionary Communist League who suffered torture enacted by Billy el Niño in Francoist Spain.[3] He studied history at the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM), although he did not graduate.[4] Urban worked as librarian in La Marabunta.[5][6]

Urbán during the presentation of Podemos in January 2014

He ran in the 20th place of the Anticapitalist Left-Global Revolt list vis-à-vis the 2009 European Parliament election in Spain.[7] He led the trotskyist Anticapitalist Left (IA) list in Madrid to the Congress of Deputies in the 2011 general election.[8]

One of the most prominent figures of IA,[9] he helped to give form along 2013 through conversations with Pablo Iglesias to the main idea of the project that would become Podemos,[10] tensions between the anticapitalistas and the UCM lecturers notwithstanding. On 17 January 2014, he was among the partakers of the event at the Teatro del Barrio in Lavapiés that presented the Mover ficha manifesto,[11] the foundational text of Podemos.

He was included 7th in the Podemos list for the 2014 European Parliament election.[12] Following the renouncements of Carlos Jiménez Villarejo and Teresa Rodríguez to their respective seats,[13] Urbán became an MEP on 5 March 2015. He served as member of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE; 2015) and the Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET; 2015–2019), as well as in the Subcommittee on Human Rights (DROI) the Delegation for relations with the Maghreb countries and the Arab Maghreb Union and the Delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union for the Mediterranean.[14]

He ran as a Unidas Podemos Cambiar Europa electoral coalition list candidate for the 2019 European Parliament election in Spain,[15] being re-elected to the European Parliament for the 2019–2024 term. He joined the Committee on Development (EVE) and the DROI as well as the Delegation for relations with Mercosur (DMER) and the Delegation to the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly (DLAT).[1]

In February 2020, Urbán left Podemos alongside the platform Anticapitalistas, heir to Anticapitalist Left and hitherto integrated within the party.[16]

On 2 March 2022, he was one of 13 MEPs who voted against the resolution condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine and for arming Ukraine.[17]

In January 2023, Miguel Urban commented on the ongoing Qatargate scandal, “The Qatargate scandal points to an even deeper Moroccogate affair. The European Parliament should take the same precautionary measures with Morocco as it did with Qatar. Every European Parliament legislative activity in recent years involving Moroccan interests should be retrospectively reviewed to ensure that it has not been influenced by foreign interference.”[18]

Works
  • — (2014). El viejo fascismo y la nueva derecha radical. Barcelona: Sylone.[19]
  • — (2020). La emergencia de Vox. Apuntes para combatir a la extrema derecha española. Barcelona: Sylone.[20]

References
Citations
  1. "Miguel Urbán Crespo". www.europarl.europa.eu. European Parliament. 26 March 1980.
  2. Riveiro, Aitor (2 May 2018). ""Hay que construir un bloque del cambio amplio en Europa porque lo que viene es peor que lo visto hasta ahora"". eldiario.es.
  3. "Víctimas de 'Billy el Niño', entre ellas el padre del eurodiputado Miguel Urbán, presentan tres querellas por torturas". www.europapress.es. Europa Press. 28 February 2019.
  4. "Anticapitalistas se presenta a las elecciones del 20-N". www.cronicapopular.es. Crónica Popular. 17 October 2015. Archived from the original on 15 August 2019. Retrieved 12 October 2019.
  5. Bécares, Roberto (29 May 2014). "El Lavapiés de Podemos, del almacén de frutos secos a la cafetería sin Coca-Cola". www.elmundo.es. El Mundo.
  6. Orué, Eva (8 February 2015). "Más que vender libros". www.infolibre.es. InfoLibre.
  7. Junta Electoral Central: "Candidaturas proclamadas a las elecciones de Diputados al Parlamento Europeo convocadas por Real Decreto 482/2009, de 3 de abril, a celebrar el 7 de junio de 2009" (PDF). Boletín Oficial del Estado (115): 40777–40828. 12 May 2009. ISSN 0212-033X.
  8. Candidaturas proclamadas para las elecciones al Congreso de los Diputados y al Senado Boletín Oficial del Estado, 25 de octubre de 2011.
  9. Rodríguez López 2016, p. 78.
  10. Rodríguez López 2016, p. 81.
  11. Rodríguez López 2016, pp. 78–79.
  12. Junta Electoral Central: "Acuerdo de 28 de abril de 2014, de la Junta Electoral Central, de proclamación de candidaturas a las elecciones de Diputados al Parlamento Europeo, convocadas por Real Decreto 213/2014, de 31 de marzo, a celebrar el 25 de mayo de 2014" (PDF). Boletín Oficial del Estado (104): 33409–33471. 29 April 2014. ISSN 0212-033X.
  13. "El rival de Pablo Iglesias en Madrid toma mañana posesión de su escaño como eurodiputado de Podemos". www.eldiario.es. eldiario.es. 4 March 2015.
  14. "Miguel Urbán Crespo. 8th parliamentary term". www.europarl.europa.eu. European Parliament. 26 March 1980.
  15. Junta Electoral Central: "Resolución de 29 de abril de 2019, de la Presidencia de la Junta Electoral Central, de proclamación de candidaturas a las elecciones de diputados al Parlamento Europeo convocadas por Real Decreto 206/2019, de 1 de abril, a celebrar el 26 de mayo de 2019" (PDF). Boletín Oficial del Estado (103): 46867–46920. 30 April 2019. ISSN 0212-033X.
  16. "Miguel Urbán abandona Podemos pero mantiene su acta como eurodiputado". La Vanguardia. 13 February 2020.
  17. "We asked 13 MEPs why they voted no to condemn Russia's war in Ukraine". 2 March 2022.
  18. "Moroccogate: Human rights are not for sale". 19 January 2023.
  19. Méndez Rubio 2015–2016, p. 67.
  20. eldiariomurcia (February 2020). "El eurodiputado Miguel Urbán presenta en Murcia 'La emergencia de Vox'". eldiario.es (in Spanish). Retrieved 7 February 2020.
Bibliography
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.