Joaquín Francisco Puig Ferrer, known as Ximo Puig (; born 4 January 1959), is a Spanish politician who has served as leader of the

Socialist Party of the Valencian Country The Socialist Party of the Valencian Country ( ca-valencia, Partit Socialista del País Valencià; es, Partido Socialista del País Valenciano, PSPV–PSOE) is a social-democratic political party in the Valencian Community, and is a regional branc ...

(PSPV-PSOE), the Valencian regional branch of the

PSOE 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 gov ...

, since March 2012. He is the current

President of the Valencian Government The president of the Valencian Government ( ca-valencia, President de la Generalitat Valenciana) is the head of the Generalitat Valenciana, the government of the Spanish autonomous community of Valencia. The president is chosen by the Valencian par ...

, leading the second Puig government.

Life and career

Puig was born in

Morella, Castellón Morella () is an ancient walled city located on a hill-top in the province of Castellón, Valencian Community, Spain. The town is the capital and administrative centre of the '' comarca'' of Els Ports, in the historic Maestrat (Maestrazgo) reg ...

. A journalist by profession, he worked for local newspapers and for the Antena 3 radio station.biography of Ximo Puig
Levante-EMV, 16 April 2015, accessed 20 May 2015 He was elected to the

Corts Valencianes The Corts Valencianes (), commonly known as ''Les Corts'' (), are the main legislative body of the Generalitat Valenciana and therefore of the Valencian Community. The main location of the Corts is in the Palace of the Borgias in Valencia; how ...

, the Valencian regional parliament, in the first democratic elections in 1983. He resigned his seat in 1986, when he was appointed Director General of Institutional relations and information in the Valencian regional administration, serving until 1995. In May 1995 he became mayor of his hometown of Morella, serving until 2012, when he resigned after becoming leader of the PSPV-PSOE. In the

2011 Spanish general election The 2011 Spanish general election was held on Sunday, 20 November 2011, to elect the 10th Cortes Generales of the Kingdom of Spain. All 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies were up for election, as well as 208 of 266 seats in the Senate. An el ...

he was elected to the

Congress of Deputies The Congress of Deputies ( es, link=no, Congreso de los Diputados, italic=unset) is the lower house of the Cortes Generales, Spain's legislative branch. The Congress meets in the Palacio de las Cortes, Madrid, Palace of the Parliament () in Ma ...

, representing Castellón Province. In Congress, he served as spokesman for the committee on industry, energy and tourism. In March 2014 Puig won the PSPV-PSOE primary to be the party's candidate for President of the Valencian Government in the 2015 regional elections. He received 68.8% of the votes in the primary.El triunfo en primarias blinda a Puig ante un mal resultado en las europeas

El País ''El País'' (; ) is a Spanish-language daily newspaper in Spain. ''El País'' is based in the capital city of Madrid and it is owned by the Spanish media conglomerate PRISA. It is the second most circulated daily newspaper in Spain . ''El Pa ...

, 10 March 2014 On 25 June 2015, he was invested

with the favourable votes of

PSPV-PSOE The Socialist Party of the Valencian Country ( ca-valencia, Partit Socialista del País Valencià; es, Partido Socialista del País Valenciano, PSPV–PSOE) is a social-democratic political party in the Valencian Community, and is a regional bran ...

, Podemos and Compromís, succeeding

Alberto Fabra Alberto Fabra Part (Castellón de la Plana, born 6 April 1964) is a Spanish politician who belongs to the People's Party. He was the fifth President of the Valencian Government since devolution was granted in 1982. Personal life He graduate ...

and putting an end to two decades of PP governments in the region. He was re-elected for a second term, with the support of the same parties, on 13 June 2019.

References

, - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Puig, Ximo 1959 births Living people Presidents of the Valencian Government Members of the 10th Congress of Deputies (Spain) People from the Province of Castellón Socialist Party of the Valencian Country politicians Spanish journalists Male journalists Mayors of places in the Valencian Community Members of the 1st Corts Valencianes Members of the 5th Corts Valencianes Members of the 6th Corts Valencianes Members of the 7th Corts Valencianes Members of the 9th Corts Valencianes Members of the 10th Corts Valencianes