Nicanor Cué (born 6 September 1956), known as Nico Cué, is a

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

-born Belgian trade unionist and politician. He served as the General Secretary of the

General Federation of Belgian Labour The General Labour Federation of Belgium (, , FGTB; , , ABVV) is a socialist national trade union federation in Belgium. It was founded in 1945. It is affiliated with the International Trade Union Confederation and has a membership of 1.5 million ...

(FGTB) Metalworkers for two decades. In the

2019 European Parliament election The 2019 European Parliament election was held in the European Union (EU) between 23 and 26 May 2019. It was the ninth parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979. A total of 751 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) we ...

, Cué and

Violeta Tomić Violeta Tomić, sometimes known in Slovenian as Violeta Tomič (born 22 January 1963) is a Slovenian television presenter and actress, serving as a deputy in the National Assembly. A member of Party Our Future, founded by Ivan Gale. She was cho ...

are

European Left The Party of the European Left (PEL), or European Left (EL), is a European political party that operates as an association of Democratic socialism, democratic socialist and Communism, communist political parties in the European Union and other E ...

's lead candidates (Spitzenkandidaten) for the

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. He was not elected.

Early life and education

Nico Cué was born in

Mieres Mieres is a municipality of Asturias, northern Spain, with approximately 38,000 inhabitants. The municipality of Mieres is made up of the capital, Mieres del Camino and the villages of Baíña, Figaredo, Cenera, Loredo, La Peña, La Rebollada, ...

Asturias Asturias (; ; ) officially the Principality of Asturias, is an autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in northwest Spain. It is coextensive with the provinces of Spain, province of Asturias and contains some of the territory t ...

on 6 September 1956. His father, a miner, was forced to flee

Francoist Spain Francoist Spain (), also known as the Francoist dictatorship (), or Nationalist Spain () was the period of Spanish history between 1936 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death i ...

to Belgium in 1962, after the miners' strikes of that year. He had no work permit and struggled to find a job until sympathisers with the republican cause in Belgium found him work in a mine near

Liège Liège ( ; ; ; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality of Wallonia, and the capital of the Liège Province, province of Liège, Belgium. The city is situated in the valley of the Meuse, in the east o ...

. After a year, his wife and children could finally join him in Liège. He died suddenly in a car accident in 1968, leaving his wife to raise seven children. Cué was educated at the local technical school and got his first job at the FN factory in Liège. He became politically active as a teenager and joined the FGTB trade union on getting his first job.

Political career

In 1997, Cué stood as a rank-and-file candidate for the General Secretary of the Union of Belgian Metalworkers and won. On 26–27 January, 2019, in

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

, Cué and Slovene

were voted by the Executive Board of the

Party of the European Left The Party of the European Left (PEL), or European Left (EL), is a European political party that operates as an association of democratic socialist and communist political parties in the European Union and other European countries. It was formed ...

as the top candidates for the 2019

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election.

Personal life

Cué is married to an

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. They have at least one son.

References

External links

*
#EUelections2019 - Nico CUÉ, lead candidate for the European Left - Multimedia Centre
1956 births 21st-century Belgian politicians Belgian trade unionists Living people {{Belgium-politician-stub