Alejandro Pastor López (born 17 July 1979) is a former

Socialists' Party of Catalonia The Socialists' Party of Catalonia (, PSC–PSOE) is a social democratic political party in Catalonia, Spain, resulting from the merger of three parties: the Socialist Party of Catalonia–Regrouping, led by Josep Pallach i Carolà, the Socia ...

(PSC) politician. First elected to

Badalona Badalona (, , , ) is a municipality in Barcelonès county, in Catalonia (Spain). It is located to the north east of Barcelona, on the left bank of the Besòs River and on the Mediterranean Sea, in the Barcelona metropolitan area. By population, ...

City Council in 2015, he became

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

in 2018. He resigned on 22 April 2020 after being arrested and eventually convicted of drink driving and assaulting the police.

Early life and career

Pastor has degrees in Labour Relations and Labour Sciences. He was a member of a students' organisation and also active in the youth wing of the PSC. He first took part in an election to the city council in 1995, but otherwise spent his early adulthood as a civil servant in a department related to employment. In

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

, Pastor was elected to the city council, but amidst a poor result for his party. The left-wing, anti-independence PSC had to choose between backing the left-wing and pro-independence candidate

Dolors Sabater Maria Dolors Sabater Puig (born 28 November 1960) is a Catalan teacher, social activist and politician from Spain. She was mayor of Badalona from 2015 to 2018, and elected to the Parliament of Catalonia in 2021. Career Sabater is a teacher wi ...

or the right-wing, anti-independence incumbent

Xavier García Albiol Xavier García Albiol (born 8 December 1967) is a Spanish politician and member of the People's Party. He has been the president of the Badalona branch of his party since 1990, and he was the mayor of Badalona between 2011 and 2015, and again f ...

as mayor. In 2018, Pastor tabled a vote of no confidence in Sabater. The motion carried on 20 June with support of the three PSC councillors, the ten from the People's Party and the one from

Citizens Citizenship is a membership and allegiance to a sovereign state. Though citizenship is often conflated with nationality in today's English-speaking world, international law does not usually use the term ''citizenship'' to refer to nationality; ...

. In the

2019 elections The following elections were scheduled to occur in 2019. The International Foundation for Electoral Systems has a calendar of upcoming elections around the world, and the National Democratic Institute also maintains a calendar of elections in cou ...

, he retained his office when Sabater withdrew her candidacy and the separatist parties voted for Pastor.

Resignation and conviction

On 21 April 2020, Pastor was stopped by the

Mossos d'Esquadra The ''Mossos d'Esquadra'' (; ), also known as the ''Policia de la Generalitat de Catalunya'' and informally as ''Mossos'', is the State police#Spain, regional police force in the autonomous community of Catalonia. They trace their origins back ...

for driving erratically. Police reports said that he repeatedly brought up his position as an excuse to go free, refused to take a breathalyser test and began assaulting officers, including biting. He was additionally arrested for breaking the COVID-19 lockdown. Suspended by his party, he resigned his office the following day. Days before his offences, Pastor said of people who broke lockdown "there are people who think they're smarter than the rest and that they don't have to abide by the rules. They don't put their health at risk, but ours". Sources close to Pastor said that his job and his personal life had caused him physical and psychological harm. In February 2021, Pastor went to court in

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

. He was convicted and fined €800 and banned from driving for 16 months. He was sentenced to eight months in prison, suspended due to his lack of previous convictions and his agreement to pay damages.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pastor, Alex 1979 births Living people People from Badalona Socialists' Party of Catalonia politicians Mayors of Badalona Municipal councillors in the province of Barcelona Spanish politicians convicted of crimes People convicted of assault