Josep Piqué, a free politician, dies

Josep Piqué (Vilanova i la Geltrú, 1955) died on Thursday in Madrid at the age of 68.

Oliver Thansan
Oliver Thansan
06 April 2023 Thursday 09:24
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Josep Piqué, a free politician, dies

Josep Piqué (Vilanova i la Geltrú, 1955) died on Thursday in Madrid at the age of 68. Doctor in Economics and Law graduate, he held four ministerial portfolios in the governments of José María Aznar (Industry, Spokesperson, Foreign Affairs and Science and Technology) and was president of the PP of Catalonia. Centrist, Catalan and liberal, with a brilliant mind and a friend of calling things by their name, Piqué's journey in politics began in 1996 and ended in 2007, when at the head of the Catalan PP he did not accept the tutelage of the leadership of the party In fact, he never accepted that others set his course.

On May 3, 1996, he began his political adventure, which he always interpreted as another part of his life trajectory, in which, just as he had entered, he would leave to return to his profession as an economist. That day, two months after the general elections in which the PP won with an insufficient majority, Piqué, then president of Ercros and the Cercle d'Economia, received a call from Madrid. It was Rodrigo Rato who, in the name of José María Aznar, offered to be Minister of Industry. On the fly and without delay, the Catalan economist said yes. "I was seduced by risk and challenge," he explained years later, "as it has always been in my life." He was 41 years old.

The reasons for that call, the political context of the moment and the decision taken explain the mark that he was going to leave in Spanish and Catalan politics. Piqué and Aznar had met in 1995 at a dinner in Llavaneres where they had openly disagreed about the radical opposition that the PP was making to Felipe González. After the insufficient victory of the popular, and the doubts in nationalism about whether to investiture Aznar, the Catalan economist had sent his commitment to the involvement of CiU in governance with the PP, on the need for a rapprochement that would break the deep differences between the popular and the nationalists to open a new political stage.

With a single suit and after having called Jordi Pujol, with whom he had been general director of Industry, Piqué went to Madrid. He knew that the step was complicated, but he considered that he should make his contribution at a time of fragility and the need for dialogue. Together with the Industry portfolio, two years later he took over as Government spokesperson. A fundamental role in the minister's career and the formation of a policy of moderation and dialogue with Catalonia that today seems like a mirage.

Piqué replaced Miguel Ángel Rodriguez in a commitment by the president to transmit a centrist message from the Government and, also, to capitalize on the good relations with the Government of the Generalitat for the PP. Capable of tempering messages, direct and clear, the Catalan leader always addressed the media regardless of party tutelage. That first legislature led to the 2000 elections, where as a candidate in Barcelona he achieved the best results for the PP in Catalonia. Although there were a few years left, "Operation Piqué" was underway.

In the year 2000, he assumed the Foreign Affairs portfolio in a legislature in which he would change the course of Spanish foreign policy with a commitment to relations with the United States, which would lead -when Piqué was already head of Science and Technology- in the support to the Iraq war. The Catalan leader already had his feet in the ministry that would later take him to Catalonia, as a candidate for the autonomous elections. His objective, he said a few months before, was for the PP to become a basic gear in Catalan politics, although he was perfectly aware of the difficulties. He was not, and Catalan and Spanish politics have followed paths that are far removed from the minister's ideology. A man who wanted to be remembered for a job well done and half jokingly said that his dream was to fly into space.

Before his appointment as a minister in the Aznar government, he was General Director of Industry of the Generalitat and an economist at the La Caixa research service. In his student years he had been a member of the PSUC and explained that his mother kept the card at home.

After leaving politics in 2007, he was president of Vueling, member of the Board of Airbus Group, vice president of OHL. He was also a director of Seat and Amadeus and until now he was president of ITP Aero. A contributor to this newspaper, he was part of the advisory board of La Vanguardia.

Piqué said, "I have always tried to enjoy what I was doing, and this is extraordinary luck."