Josep Bargalló i Valls (born 3 October 1958) is a Spanish teacher and politician from Catalonia and the current Minister of Education of Catalonia. Born in 1958 in Torredembarra, Bargalló studied philology at the University of Barcelona before becoming a teacher. He was a member of the municipal council in Torredembarra from 1995 to 2003. He was a member of the Parliament of Catalonia from April 1992 to September 2003 when he retired from politics. However, in December 2003 he was appointed Minister of Education of Catalonia and in February 2004 he was promoted to Chief Advisor/

First Minister of Catalonia This article lists the vice presidents of Catalonia, the second most senior position in the Government of Catalonia. The position, previously known as First Minister ( ca, Conseller Primer, translation=First Councillor), Chief Advisor ( ca, Conse ...

. Bargalló and other Republican Left of Catalonia ministers were sacked from the Catalan government in May 2006. Bargalló was re-elected to the Parliament of Catalonia in December 2006 but resigned in January 2007 after being appointed director of the

Institut Ramon Llull The Institut Ramon Llull (English: Ramon Llull Institute) is a consortium consisting of the Generalitat de Catalunya, (Catalan Government), the Govern de les Illes Balears (Government of the Balearic Islands) and the Ajuntament de Barcelona (Barc ...

, a position he held until December 2010. He was also director of the Fundació Ramon Llull from 2008 to 2010. Bargalló returned to politics in June 2018 when he was appointed Minister of Education of Catalonia for a second time.

Early life

Bargalló was born on 3 October 1958 in Torredembarra, Catalonia. He has degree in Catalan philology from the University of Barcelona (UB) in Tarragona and a master's degree in advanced studies of Catalan language, literature and culture from the

Rovira i Virgili University University of Rovira i Virgili ( ca, Universitat Rovira i Virgili; , es, Universidad Rovira y Virgili; URV) is located in the Catalan cities of Tarragona and Reus, Spain. Its name is in honour of Antoni Rovira i Virgili. The University of Ro ...

(URV).

Career

Bargalló started working as a teacher in 1981 and was headteacher of Pons d’Icart Secondary School in Tarragona from 1985 to 1987. He has been a member of the Unió dels Treballadors d'Ensenyament de Catalunya (USTEC·STEs), a teacher's union, since 1980. Bargalló has also taught several post-graduate courses. Since 2011 he has been vice-president of the Josep Irla Foundation graduate course in Catalan philology at UB and co-ordinator of the Institute of Educational Sciences at URV. Bargalló is a member of the Societat Catalana de Llengua i Literatura, part of the Institut d'Estudis Catalans. He has worked in the publishing sector, as a literary director for several collections and publishing houses. He was co-ordinator of the Capitell de Columna edicions collection between 1988 and 1991 and literary director of Edicions El Mèdol from 1989 to 1998. He has written several books and essays on history and literature as well as film scripts. He has also been a literature critic for newspapers and specialist magazines. Bargalló is a member of the Colla Castellera Nois de la Torre, Ball de Diables de Torredembarra and the group of carriers of the Virgen de Torredembarra dragon. Bargalló was director of the

from December 2006 to December 2010 and director of the Fundació Ramon Llull from 2008 to 2010.

Politics

Bargalló's political life began in the Assemblea de Catalunya, which he founded, in Torredembarra. Over the years he has also been a member of the Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia (PSUC),

Socialist Party of National Liberation The Socialist Party of National Liberation ( Catalan: ''Partit Socialista d'Alliberament Nacional'', PSAN) is an independentist and communist party active in Catalonia. The PSAN was created in 1968 following a split in the more leftist sector of ...

(PSAN) and Left Nationalists (NE). Bargalló contested the 1992 regional election as an independent Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) candidate in the

Province of Tarragona Tarragona (, ) is a province of eastern Spain, in the southern part of the autonomous community of Catalonia. It is bordered by the provinces of Castellón, Teruel, Zaragoza, Lérida and Barcelona and by the Mediterranean Sea. The province's p ...

and was elected to the Parliament of Catalonia. He joined ERC in 1995. He was re-elected at the

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

and

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

regional elections. Bargalló contested the 1995 local elections as an ERC candidate in Torredembarra and was elected. He was re-elected at the

and

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

local elections. He was deputy mayor of Torredembarra from 1999 and 2003. Bargalló chose to retire from politics in 2003 and at the 2003 regional election he was placed 18th on ERC's list of candidates in the Province of Tarragona but as the party only managed to win three seats in the province he was not re-elected. However, after the election leftist parties formed a government led by Pasqual Maragall and in December 2003 Bargalló was appointed Minister of Education. He was appointed Chief Advisor (re-designated First Minister in March 2005) in February 2014 following the resignation of Josep-Lluís Carod-Rovira. Bargalló and other ERC ministers were sacked from the government in May 2006 as a result the ERC's refusal to support the 2006 Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia. Govern de Catalunya foto oficial 2018

Bargalló contested the 2006 regional election as an ERC candidate in the Province of Tarragona and was re-elected. He resigned from parliament on 3 January 2007 after being appointed director of the Institut Ramon Llull. On 19 May 2018 newly elected President of Catalonia Quim Torra nominated a new government in which Bargalló was to be Minister of Education. He was sworn in on 2 June 2018 at the Palau de la Generalitat de Catalunya.

Published works

* ''Literatura Catalana del Segle XVI al XVIII'' (1987, Teide; ) * ''Un Segle de Castells: de 1900 a 2000 en Dades'' (2001, Cossetània Edicions; ) * ''Manual de Mètrica i Versificació Catalanes'' (2007, Editorial Empúries; ) * ''Què és la Mètrica: Introducció a la Versificació Catalana'' (2007, Edicions; ) * ''Les Set Vides de Pere Romeu: Indians, Modernistes i Sportsmen'' (2016, A Contra Vent; )

Electoral history

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bargallo, Josep 1958 births Academics from Catalonia Philologists from Catalonia Educators from Catalonia Writers from Catalonia Spanish municipal councillors Education ministers of Catalonia First Ministers of Generalitat de Catalunya Living people Members of the 4th Parliament of Catalonia Members of the 5th Parliament of Catalonia Members of the 6th Parliament of Catalonia Members of the 8th Parliament of Catalonia People from Tarragonès Republican Left of Catalonia politicians Torra Government University of Barcelona alumni