Josep Borrell
Josep Borrell Fontelles (Western Catalan: [dʒuˈzɛb boˈreʎ fonˈteʎes]; born 24 April 1947) is a Spanish politician serving as High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy since 1 December 2019. A member of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), he served as President of the European Parliament from 2004 to 2007 and as Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation in the Government of Spain from 2018 to 2019.
In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Borrell and the second or maternal family name is Fontelles.
Josep Borrell
Margarita Robles
(acting)
- Spain
- Argentina (since 2019)
Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (since 1975)
Carolina Mayeur (div.)
2
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Born and raised in the Catalan village of La Pobla de Segur, Borrell is an aeronautical engineer and economist by training as well as professor of mathematics. He entered politics in the 1970s as a member of the PSOE during Spain's transition to democracy, and went on to serve in several prominent positions during the governments of Felipe González, first within the Ministry of Economy and Finance as General Secretary for the Budget and Public Spending (1982–1984) and Secretary of State for Finance (1984–1991), then joining the Council of Ministers as Minister of Public Works and Transport (1991–1996). In the opposition after the 1996 election, Borrell unexpectedly won the PSOE primary in 1998 and became Leader of the Opposition and the designated prime ministerial candidate of the party until he resigned in 1999. He then switched to European politics, becoming a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) during the 2004–2009 legislative period and serving as President of the European Parliament for the first half of the term.
He returned to the Spanish Council of Ministers in June 2018, when he was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs, the European Union and Cooperation in the Sánchez government. In July 2019, Borrell was announced as the European Council's nominee to be appointed High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. He took office in December 2019.
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Early life and career[edit]
Josep (or José)[n. 1] Borrell Fontelles was born on 24 April 1947 in the Catalan village of La Pobla de Segur, province of Lleida, near the Pyrenees, son of Joan Borrell (father) and Luisa Fontelles Doll (mother).[1][2] He grew up in the village, where his father owned a small bakery.[3][4][5] His paternal grandparents were Spanish immigrants in Argentina, where they ran a bakery in the city of Mendoza, close to the General San Martín Park.[5][6] They returned to Spain when Joan Borrell, Josep's father, was eight years old.[5][7] Borrell's father arrived in Spain just before the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War and afterwards he would never leave his village of La Pobla de Segur.[8]
After completing primary education, the remote location of his village led Josep Borrell to be home-schooled with aid from his mother and a retired teacher, taking the official Baccalaureate exams at the Lleida high school.[5][9] He continued his higher education thanks to several scholarships, including from the Juan March Foundation and the Fulbright Program.[4][5][10][11] In 1964 he moved to Barcelona to study industrial engineering, but left after a year in 1965 to study aeronautical engineering at the Technical University of Madrid (UPM),[5][9] graduating in 1969. In the summer of 1969 Borrell worked as volunteer at the Gal On kibbutz in Israel, where he met his future French wife Caroline Mayeur,[5][12] from whom he is now divorced. During this time he also began to study a bachelor's degree and later a PhD in economics at the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM). Borrell also holds a master's degree in applied mathematics (operations research) from Stanford University in Palo Alto (California, US), and a postgraduate in energy economics from the French Institute of Petroleum in Paris (France).[5][13] In May 1976 Borrell defended his PhD thesis in economics at the UCM.[14][15]
From 1972 to 1982 he lectured in mathematics at the Higher Technical School of Aeronautical Engineering of the UPM.[13] In 1982 he was appointed associate professor of Business Mathematics at the University of Valladolid.[16] From 1975 to 1982 he also worked for Cepsa, employed at the company's Department of Systems and Information Engineering; he combined this activity with the teaching of university classes and involvement in local politics.[9][17][18][19]
Political career[edit]
Involvement in local politics[edit]
Borrell joined the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) in 1975 and started his political activity during Spain's transition to democracy in the Socialist Grouping of Madrid along with Luis Solana and Luis Carlos Croissier.[20][21][22] He ran for office as the number 5 in the PSOE list for the 1979 municipal election in Majadahonda, becoming city councillor. Borrell also became a member of the 1979–1983 corporation of the Provincial Deputation of Madrid and managed the Financial Department of the provincial government body in the pre-autonomic period.[23][24][25]
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