José Montilla Aguilera (born 15 January 1955 in

Iznájar Iznájar is a town and municipal area in the province of Córdoba in Andalucia, southern Spain. Located at , it lies on the Genil river approximately 110 km from the provincial capital of Córdoba very close to the borders with both Mála ...

Andalusia Andalusia (, ; es, Andalucía ) is the southernmost autonomous community in Peninsular Spain. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomous community in the country. It is officially recognised as a "historical nationality". The t ...

, Spain) is a Spanish politician who is currently a member of the Spanish Senate. He was the 128th President of Generalitat de Catalunya. He became the First Secretary of the

Socialists' Party of Catalonia The Socialists' Party of Catalonia ( ca, Partit dels Socialistes de Catalunya, PSC–PSOE official acronym) is a social-democratic political party in Catalonia, Spain, resulting from the merger of three parties: the Socialist Party of Catalonia� ...

on 18 June 2000, and a member of the Federal Executive Committee and the Federal Committee of the

Spanish Socialist Workers' Party The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party ( es, Partido Socialista Obrero Español ; PSOE ) is a social-democraticThe PSOE is described as a social-democratic party by numerous sources: * * * * political party in Spain. The PSOE has been in gove ...

(PSOE) on 23 July 2000. He served as Minister of Industry, Tourism and Trade in the government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero from 18 April 2004 until 9 September 2006. He is married and has five children. On 29 November 2010 he announced he would not stand again for the post of First Secretary of the PSC due to his party's having obtained its worst-ever results in the 2010 election.

Childhood and youth (1955–1978)

At the age of sixteen, he moved from his native

Catalonia Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a '' nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the nort ...

and settled in Sant Joan Despí. His higher education began with vocational training, but later he studied Law for one year and Economics for two years at the

University of Barcelona The University of Barcelona ( ca, Universitat de Barcelona, UB; ; es, link=no, Universidad de Barcelona) is a public university located in the city of Barcelona, Catalonia, in Spain. With 63,000 students, it is one of the biggest universities i ...

. He himself has said that he gave up his university career as he was working and studying at the same time.

Local politics (1978–2004)

Having joined the

in 1978, two years later he became a member of the party's National Council. At the age of 25, he was appointed Deputy mayor for Local Taxation in Sant Joan Despí, where he was also the spokesman of the Socialist group on the council. Subsequently, between 1985 and April 2004, he was mayor of

Cornellà de Llobregat Cornellà de Llobregat (; es, Cornellá de Llobregat) is a municipality in the ''comarca'' of the Baix Llobregat in Catalonia, Spain. It is situated on the left bank of the Llobregat River. It is in the south-western part of the Barcelona metr ...

. In the 1999 elections and again in 2003 he was re-elected with an absolute majority. In 1988, after the creation of the Consells Comarcals (District Councils), he was elected president of the District Council of Baix Llobregat, a post he occupied until late 1997. He became a member of the Diputació de Barcelona ( Provincial Council) in 1983 as Provincial Deputy for Public Works. In 1987, he was appointed second vice-president of the Diputació and in 1991 he became delegate president for Agriculture and the Environment, a post to which he was appointed again in 1995. In 1999, he was appointed First Vice-president, and he was President of the Diputació from 1 July 2003. In 1994, he was elected Secretary for Organization of his party, and he became First Secretary of the party on 18 June 2000.

Minister (2004–2006)

After the 2003 election to the

Parliament of Catalonia The Parliament of Catalonia ( ca, Parlament de Catalunya, ; es, Parlamento de Cataluña; oc, Parlament de Catalonha) is the unicameral legislature of the autonomous community of Catalonia, Spain. The Parliament is currently made up of 135 mem ...

and the constitution of the "Tripartite Government" of the

(PSC),

Republican Left of Catalonia The Republican Left of Catalonia ( ca, Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, ERC; ; generically branded as ) is a pro-Catalan independence, social-democratic political party in the Spanish autonomous community of Catalonia, with a presence also i ...

(ERC) and Iniciativa per Catalunya Verds (ICV) and his appointment as a central government minister in 2004, he became the PSC strong-man in the central government in Madrid, sitting in the national parliament as deputy for Barcelona district from 2004 to 2006. His appointment in April 2004 as minister for Industry, Trade and Tourism meant he resigned all his posts in the local administration. He combined his work as minister with the post of First Secretary of the PSC and member of the Federal Executive of the

(PSOE).

Return to Catalan politics

After

Pasqual Maragall Pasqual Maragall i Mira (; born 13 January 1941) is a Spanish politician and former President of Generalitat de Catalunya. He had previously been Mayor of Barcelona, from 1982 to 1997, and helped run the city's successful Olympic bid. Early l ...

announced that he would not stand again as candidate for president of the Generalitat de Catalunya, the National Committee of the PSC elected him as candidate for the presidency of Catalonia in the

elections An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold Public administration, public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative ...

of 1 November 2006. In these elections no party obtained an absolute majority, and the PSC won only the second-largest number of seats after

Convergence and Union Convergence and Union ( ca, Convergència i Unió, CiU; ) was a Catalan nationalist electoral alliance in Catalonia, Spain. It was a federation of two constituent parties, the larger Democratic Convergence of Catalonia (CDC) and its smaller coun ...

(CiU); however, the PSC again reached an agreement with ERC and Iniciativa per Catalunya to form a coalition government, with Montilla at its head. He officially took office as president on Tuesday, 28 November 2006, and he was the first President of the Generalitat in modern times to have been born outside Catalonia. The PSC was defeated in the election held on 28 November 2010, but Montilla remained in office until his successor was elected by the new parliament. In the wake of this defeat, he also announced that he would not stand again as First Secretary of the PSC at the party's next congress. Later, he further announced that he would not lead the opposition in the new parliament, and indeed would not take up his seat.

Other activities

Enagás Enagás, S.A. (, originally an initialism for ) is a Spanish energy company and European transmission system operator (TSO), which owns and operates the nation's gas grid. The firm also owns four liquefied natural gas regasification terminal ...

, Independent Member of the Board of DirectorsBoard of Directors
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References

External links

Campaign website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Montilla, Jose 1955 births Living people People from the Province of Córdoba (Spain) People from Sant Joan Despí Socialists' Party of Catalonia politicians First Secretaries of the Socialists' Party of Catalonia Presidents of the Government of Catalonia Members of the 8th Congress of Deputies (Spain) Government ministers of Spain Mayors of places in Catalonia