Pasqual Maragall i Mira

Pasqual Maragall i Mira ( born January 13, 1941 in Barcelona) is a Catalan politician. He was from 1982 to 1997 mayor of Barcelona from 2003 to 2006, the 127th head of government of the Spanish autonomous community of Catalonia ( President de la Generalitat de Catalunya).

After studying law and economics at the University of Barcelona Maragall 1965 began his work in the city council of Barcelona. 1971 to 1973 he lived in New York, where he attended the New School University, where the acquired in Master of Arts in Economics. In 1978 he received his PhD at the Autonomous University of Barcelona.

About his work at the union he came to Partit dels Socialistes de Catalunya (PSC). In the first local elections after Franco's death in 1979, he moved into the city council of Barcelona. As the mayor Narcis Serra was founded in 1982 to Madrid, he took over the office of the Mayor of Barcelona and was confirmed in the 1983 election, 1987, 1991 and 1995. In 1997 he handed over the office to his successor, Joan Clos. In Maragall tenure host the 25th Summer Olympic Games was in 1992, the organizing committee he chaired.

In 1999 he went as a top candidate of the PSC in the elections to the Catalan Parliament. Since his opponent Jordi Pujol could forge a coalition of his party Convergència i Unio and the Partido Popular, Maragall lost the newly constituted Parliament in the election for the office of President of the Generalitat, and was leader of the opposition. In 2003, he succeeded, however, a three-party coalition of the PSC, the Iniciativa per Catalunya Verds (IC - V) and the Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya ( ERC) to form and so after four years of opposition, the office of President of the Catalan Government to take over. The coalition collapsed in May 2006, the dispute over the new Statute of Autonomy in the ERC did not go far enough. Maragall subsequently announced for October for an early election and declared in June - possibly under pressure from his own party - his renunciation of a bid again. Successor in the office of the prime minister was on 28 November 2006 his party colleague José Montilla.

In October 2007 Maragall announced that him an early stage of Alzheimer's disease was diagnosed in early 2007, and he also thus decided to withdraw from all public offices which he held. Because of persistent rumors about his health he had decided to go public with the diagnosis. Maragall is president shortly afterwards (April 2008) founded Pasqual - Maragall Foundation for Research on Alzheimer's.

635467
de