Former minister Josep Piqué dies

The politician and economist Josep Piqué, who was a minister in the governments of José María Aznar, died this Thursday at the age of 68, at the 12 de Octubre hospital in Madrid, after a long illness, as confirmed by PP sources.

The party leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, had just recovered him for politics, signing him to the economic team of the renewed party foundation, Reformismo21, along with other former PP ministers such as Fátima Báñez or Román Escolano.

The journalist Gloria Lomana, wife of the former minister, has reported that the funeral chapel will be open this Friday at the M-30 funeral home in the capital, between nine in the morning and two in the afternoon.

Born in Vilanova i la Geltrú (Barcelona) in 1955, and with a degree in Economics and Law, Josep Piqué was president of the chemical company Ercros before being recruited by Aznar in 1996 to occupy the Industry and Energy portfolios in his first Government (1996 -2000), in which he was also a spokesperson, initially as an independent and then with a PP card.

He later became Minister of Foreign Affairs (2000-2002) and Science (2002-2003).

As head of Industry, he was responsible for completing the privatization of some of the most important public companies, such as Repsol, Telefónica and Endesa, initiated by the Government of Felipe González.

In 2006 he admitted “very serious mistakes” in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, supported by Aznar.

“The conviction that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq was shared by the whole world,

Josep Piqué with Luis Vañó, who presided over the Ercros Creditors Union, in 1992.Gorka Lejarcegi

Family photo of the Government of José María Aznar (in the center of the first row), on May 7, 1996 in the Moncloa Palace, after the first Council of Ministers.

Josep Piqué, Minister of Industry and Energy, is the first from the right in the second row.Gorka Lejarcegi

Josep Piqué with Manuel Fraga, during the launching of an oil platform built in the Astano shipyards, located in the Ferrol estuary, in 1996. EFE

Javier Arenas and Josep Piqué, in a press conference after the Council of Ministers in 1998. Ricardo Gutiérrez

Mariano Rajoy, Rodrigo Rato and Josep Piqué, at the swearing in ceremony of the new Government before the King on April 28, 2000. Luis Magán

The US Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, during a press conference with Josep Piqué, in Washington in August 2000, on his first official visit to the US as Foreign Minister.

Brendan McDermid (REUTERS)

Josep Piqué photographed when he was Minister of Foreign Affairs, in December 2001. Bernardo Pérez

José María Aznar (foreground), together with Josep Piqué and Rodrigo Rato, in the family photo at the end of the European Council held in Barcelona in 2002. Reuters

Josep Piqué and Mariano Rajoy, during the broadcast of the football match between Spain and Ukraine in the 2006 World Cup in Germany, in a hotel in Barcelona.Jose Maria Tejederas Chacon

Josep Piqué posed at the Eurobuilding hotel in Madrid, in 2017. inma flores

The president of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, arm in arm with Josep Piqué, leaving the auditorium after speaking at the Barcelona Economy Circle in May 2022. Kike Rincon

Piqué chaired the Catalan PP during the debate on the Statute and was the party's candidate for the presidency of the Generalitat in the 2003 and 2006 elections, after which the PP remained as the fourth political force.

Faced with the more rigid positions defended by Ángel Acebes or Eduardo Zaplana, he opted for a Catalanization of political discourse and in 2007 resigned as leader of the popular in Catalonia with a bitter public letter: "I have worked within a party in which that there is no lack of pettiness and misery”.

Between 1986 and 1988, under the presidency of Jordi Pujol, he had been General Director of Industry of the Catalan Government.

His efforts to join the reform of the Statute then collided with the national leadership of the PP.

The @MAECgob expresses its condolences to the family and friends of Josep Piqué, Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2000 to 2002.

– Ministry of Foreign Affairs, EU and Cooperation (@MAECgob) April 6, 2023

The management of the Catalan independence challenge launched by the Generalitat from 2012 also distanced him from Mariano Rajoy: “He has a management of times that many of us do not understand.

The Catalan problem deserves to be much more proactive, it cannot be fixed with an economic negotiation”, he said in 2013. He wrote, together with Francesc de Carreras (one of the founders of Ciudadanos), the former socialist minister Josep Borrell and the jurist Juan José López Burniol the essay

(Península, 2017).

He was also president of the airline Vueling (2007-2013), CEO of OHL (2013-2016) and director of EADS, Seat, Aena and Abengoa.

When leaving OHL, in 2017, he received compensation of two million euros.

He always defended the so-called revolving doors between politics and business.

"The alternative is that those who have been involved in politics since they were 21 years old want to retire there," he declared in an interview with EL PAÍS in 2013. Piqué also chaired the Círculo de Economía, an influential

platform of businessmen and senior executives of Catalonia.

I deeply regret the death of Josep Piqué.

We are losing an excellent professional who is always willing to help his country, a Catalan through stock, a great Spaniard and best friend.

All my love to Gloria and other family.

Rest in peace.

– Alberto Núñez Feijóo (@NunezFeijoo) April 6, 2023

Esteban González Pons, the party's deputy secretary for institutional action, was one of the first to write a message lamenting the death: “Josep Piqué's death fills me with sadness.

In addition to being a benchmark in international relations, industry and constitutionalism, he represented an intelligent way of doing politics.

Yes, Piqué was intelligence, education, dialogue and good humour.

He leaves us an irrefillable gap ”, he has written on social networks.

Alberto Núñez Feijóo has shared his condolences on Twitter: “I deeply regret the death of Josep Piqué.

We lose an excellent professional always willing to help his country.

A Catalan by strain, a great Spaniard and best friend”.

Mariano Rajoy remembered him this Thursday as "an intelligent man, a tireless worker and a committed democrat".

“In the different responsibilities that he carried out so brilliantly, he was guided by his love for Spain.

She will always be in our memory ”, she added.

On his Facebook page, José María Aznar has also lamented the death of the person who was part of his Council of Ministers: “He was an excellent friend, collaborator and minister of the Government of Spain.

I will always remember and be grateful for the excellent job he did in all the responsibilities he had to take on and that he carried out with great loyalty and brilliance."

The President of the Government, the socialist Pedro Sánchez, has sent his condolences to the loved ones of the Catalan businessman: “My love and a heartfelt hug to the family, friends and colleagues of Josep Piqué.

He leaves us a public servant, a man committed to civil society and always willing to dialogue.

D.E.P".

My love and heartfelt hug to the family, friends and colleagues of Josep Piqué.

He leaves us a public servant, a man committed to civil society and always willing to dialogue.

D.E.P.

– Pedro Sánchez (@sanchezcastejon) April 6, 2023

Piqué's wife, the journalist Gloria Lomana, whom he married in 2009 (the then mayor of Madrid, Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón, celebrated the civil ceremony), has also written an emotional farewell on Twitter: "Dismayed by the death of love of my life, José.

His integrity, his strength, love for family, work and life will always be with us”.

Piqué had three children from a previous marriage.

Dismayed by the death of the love of my life, Josep, THANK YOU for the love you are transmitting to me.

For this reason, you will be able to fire him tomorrow at the M-30 Funeral Home, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

His integrity, his strength, his love for family, work and life will always be with us.

— Gloria Lomana (@LomanaGloria) April 6, 2023