There have been no surprises and Ernest Urtasun (Barcelona, 1982) will be the commons' quota in the new progressive coalition government. The MEP will assume the Culture portfolio, without the Sports appendix, which until now was headed by the president of the PSC, Miquel Iceta. Urtasun is not the first time that he appears in the pools regarding the composition of the government, in 2019 he was already polled but he rejected it outright. On this occasion he has agreed to enter the government although the subject he will be in charge of does not stand out in a diplomatic resume tinged with environmentalism.
Son of PSUC militants, he speaks English, French and German. He is an economist and career diplomat. He began his political activity at a very young age, at the age of 15, in the Initiative for Catalunya Verds (ICV) and became the coordinator of the training, until in 2016 he negotiated the construction of the commons, led by Ada Colau, in which the integrating.
He has spent most of his political career in Brussels, first as an advisor to former minister Raül Romeva, then an eco-socialist MEP. Thus, Urtasun became a European parliamentarian in 2014 and vice-president of the Green Group in the European Parliament, until now.
Her future began to move away from the community capital when she became fully involved this year in Sumar, serving as spokesperson for the electoral campaign for the general elections. Yolanda Díaz chose him to complete her hard core, in which there is an abundance of Catalan representation with Xavier Domènech, former leader of En Comú Podem; Ramon Luque, historical communist from l'Hospitalet, and Josep Vendrell, current chief of staff in the vice presidency, also from IC.
During his time as an MEP, Urtasun has been a great defender of environmental policies, transparency in European trade agreements and cooperation on migration issues. That is why his diplomatic profile can be of great help for a legislature that, on a cultural level, will be marked by the debate on freedom of expression, as a consequence of controversial decisions adopted by regional governments of PP and Vox, and the pending issue of the status of the artist.
Due to his condition as an environmentalist, the new minister is even more radical than his predecessor regarding bullfighting. If Iceta eliminated this discipline from the cultural bonus for young people, Urtasun is clear: he directly advocates for its prohibition.
