Antonio Masip Hidalgo

Antonio Masip Hidalgo (born 3 May 1946 Oviedo ) is a Spanish lawyer and politician of the socialist party PSOE. He is a member of the European Parliament.

Life

After studying law and economics at the University of Deusto Masip Hidalgo worked as a lawyer from 1972. He campaigned against the Franco dictatorship and was a member of the Frente de Liberación left resistance organization Popular. After the transition to democracy in 1977, he entered on the list of small party Unidad Regional Ista to the first democratic elections; In 1979, he joined the PSOE.

1982 Masip Hidalgo Minister of Education, Culture and Sports in the Regional Government of Asturias. The following year he gave this office again, after he had been elected mayor of Oviedo, an office which had been occupied from 1957 to 1963 his father Valentín Macip Acevedo. Masip Hidalgo was so from 1983 to 1991, the first socialist mayor of Oviedo since the Second Spanish Republic. He also worked from 1982 to 1987 member of the regional parliament of Asturias.

From 2000 to 2004 Masip Hidalgo was a member of the PSOE party executive. In the European elections in 2004 and 2009, he was elected to the European Parliament, where he is a member of the Legal Affairs Committee.

Masip Hidalgo is married and has two children. He is the author of several books about Oviedo, as well as treatises on the Spanish Civil War in Asturias and other political and historical themes.