Former Minister of Foreign Affairs and Industry Josep Piqué (Vilanova i la Geltrú, Barcelona, 1955), former leader of the Catalan PP during the Statute stage and representative of a conservative Catalanism loyal to the Constitution, has died this Thursday at the age of 68 at the 12 de Octubre hospital in Madrid, as reported by the family in a statement.
"It is with deep sorrow that we announce the death of our husband and father, Josep Piqué Camps, on October 12 in Madrid. His personal integrity, his strength, his love for family, work and his fight for life will accompany us always", reads the note from the family of the one who was also government spokesman (1998 and 2000), Minister of Industry and Energy (1996 and 2000), Foreign Affairs (2000 and 2002) and Science and Technology (2000 and 2003).
Gloria Lomana, his widow, has thanked the expressions of affection that are reaching her "for the death of the love of my life," she wrote in a tweet.
The funeral chapel of the former member of the Popular Party governments with José María Aznar as president, will be installed in Madrid, in the M-30 Funeral Home tomorrow, Friday, April 7, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
For his part, the institutional deputy secretary of the PP, Esteban González Pons, has shown his sadness on social networks, and highlighted the "intelligence, education, dialogue and good humor" of his party mate and former leader of the Catalan PP.
"An excellent professional always willing to help his country", has written the president of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo.
"A public servant leaves us, a man committed to civil society and always willing to dialogue", highlighted the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez.
Former PP minister Josep Piqué had joined the 'council of wise men' of the PP president, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, with the desire to contribute his extensive experience in the political and citizen sphere with the aim of making a government plan.
Due to this incorporation, a few days ago, he gave an interview to EL MUNDO, which has become the last granted by the former minister, in which he expressed his concern about the current questioning of "the Constitution, unity and cohesion social."
"We regret the death of Josep Piqué, former minister, a wise and affable person," highlighted the employers' association Foment del Treball in a tweet this Thursday collected by Europa Press in which he highlighted his "broad economic and business vision".
He also recalled his involvement in "various fields, such as the commission for the expansion" of Barcelona Airport.
In addition to his political activity, Josep Piqué. Graduated in Economic and Business Sciences and in Law from the University of Barcelona, he excelled in the field of private business. He was president of the Círculo de Economía, between 2011 and 2013, president of Vueling and CEO of OHL.
Between 1986 and 1988 he was general director of Industry of the Catalan Government to later join Ercros, controlled by the KIO group, of which he became CEO and president.
During his university days he was a member of the PSUC, a Catalan communist formation, and began his professional career as a professor at the University of Barcelona.
The Minister of Social Rights of the Generalitat, Carles Campuzano, has lamented the death of the former minister and manager "from an ideological distance and political discrepancy", according to Europa Press on Twitter.
Campuzano has remembered him as a "brilliant, contradictory" man and has expressed his esteem for the family.
During his tenure as Minister of Industry and Energy in the first cabinet of José María Aznar, numerous state-owned companies such as Repsol, Aceralia, Telefónica and Endesa were privatized, and the State Industrial Agency was also liquidated and the foundations for liberalization were laid of the electrical sector.
Two years later, in 1998, he began to combine his position as minister with that of government spokesman.
Piqué decided to join the PP in January 1999 and joined the National Executive Committee. He was elected deputy for Barcelona in March 2000 and the following month he was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs.
For just over a year, from July 2002 to September 2003, he was Minister of Science and Technology and became president of the PP of Catalonia and candidate for the Generalitat in the November elections.
Shortly after taking possession of the seat, he was appointed senator for Catalonia and was re-elected president of the Catalan PP in November 2004, but had affinity problems with the party's national leadership.
In November 2006, he again stood in the Catalan elections as a PP candidate, but his lack of harmony with the leadership of the national party and his support for the Statute led him to resign as president of the Catalan PP in July 2007. Later He resigned as a deputy in the Catalan Parliament and as a senator.
That same year, in which he was a member of the Círculo de Economía and as an academic collaborator at the Esade Business School, he joined the private company. He was president of Vueling from 2007 to 2013, the year in which the IAG Group took control of the airline. During his tenure the company merged with Clickair.
Later he was CEO and second vice president of OHL, from October 2013 to June 2016.
In December 2017, he was appointed president of ITP Aero, a Rolls Royce subsidiary dedicated to the production of aeronautical engine components, and in 2022, president of the Audit Committee of the company specializing in telediagnosis and radiotherapy Atrys Health.
He was also a director of Seat (2017), of the provider of technological solutions for the tourism sector Amadeus (2019) and of the insurance company Mapfre Internacional, and in turn was a director of the energy company Abengoa and the airport Aena.
He was recognized in 2003 with the Grand Cross of the Royal and Distinguished Spanish Order of Carlos III.
Piqué is the author of numerous publications on economic policy and geopolitical analysis.
In September 2013 he suffered a slight internal hemorrhage for which he had to be admitted to the Ramón y Cajal hospital in Madrid.
Divorced from the gynecologist Margarita Montaner, with whom he had three children, he was married for the second time to the journalist Gloria Lomana since 2009.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
