Alberto Carlos Garzón Espinosa (; born 9 October 1985) is a Spanish

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking ...

and economist, currently the Spanish Minister of Consumer Affairs. He has been a member of the

Communist Party of Spain The Communist Party of Spain ( es, Partido Comunista de España; PCE) is a Marxist-Leninist party that, since 1986, has been part of the United Left coalition, which is part of Unidas Podemos. It currently has two of its politicians serving a ...

(PCE) and United Left (''Izquierda Unida'', IU) since 2003. In the 2011 general election, he was elected as an MP within that coalition. He has been the Secretary of Constituent Process in IU from 2014 to 2016, and in 2015, he was elected as an IU candidate for that year's general election. He is a researcher in University Pablo de Olavide in

Sevilla Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula ...

Biography

Family origins and youth

He is the son of Alberto Garzón Blanco, a teacher of Geography and History in Málaga, and Isabel Espinosa Casares, a pharmacist from Cenicero,

La Rioja La Rioja () is an autonomous community and province in Spain, in the north of the Iberian Peninsula. Its capital is Logroño. Other cities and towns in the province include Calahorra, Arnedo, Alfaro, Haro, Santo Domingo de la Calzada, an ...

. The two met on a summer trip in

Rincón de la Victoria Rincón de la Victoria () is a municipality in the province of Málaga in the autonomous community of Andalusia in southern Spain. It is the municipality with the highest well-being in the province of Malaga, according to the Synthetic Indicator ...

. He spent his early years in

Logroño Logroño () is the capital of the province of La Rioja, situated in northern Spain. Traversed in its northern part by the Ebro River, Logroño has historically been a place of passage, such as the Camino de Santiago. Its borders were disputed b ...

, where he was born. When he was three, the family moved to the Sevilian town of Marchena, where his father had obtained a job as a professor. In 1994, the family returned to Rincón de la Victoria. Garzón attended the Manuel Laza Palacios elementary school and the Ben Al Jatib secondary school. He liked football and attempted, unsuccessfully, to make his way into Sports Club Rincón.

University stage

Garzón initially studied Administration and Management of Corporations at the Faculty of Economic and Business Sciences of the University of Malaga, but the following year, he changed to Economics. When he was 18 years old, he joined United Left The Greens-Andalucía. In 2004, he participated in the foundation of Students for a Critical Economy, an association of which he was president until 2008, and that was in the same line as the

Post-autistic economics The post-autistic economics movement (french: autisme-économie), or movement of students for the reform of economics teaching (french: mouvement des étudiants pour une réforme de l'enseignement de l'économie), is a political movement that cri ...

movement born in France a few years earlier. The purpose of that group was academic and militant, since it denounced "the unique thinking and the intellectual emptiness that reigns in the teaching of economics" at the same time as it participated in social movements such like the Social Forum ''Another Malaga'' of 2004. The association would incorporate first as "Left-wing Students", a university association of a left-wing and anticapitalist nature, and later, in the platform of "Critical Students", a union of many progressive groups. Criticism Economy Malaga stood in the students' elections, obtaining 64% of the votes in 2008. UL listed Garzón fifth on their candidate list for the 2007 Spanish local elections. Garzón later earned his Master's in International Economy and Development at the School of Business & Economic Sciences at the

Complutense University of Madrid The Complutense University of Madrid ( es, Universidad Complutense de Madrid; UCM, links=no, ''Universidad de Madrid'', ''Universidad Central de Madrid''; la, Universitas Complutensis Matritensis, links=no) is a public research university loc ...

. It was here that Garzón Sampedro, who Garzón would later publicly thank for being the basis of his school of thought. Other politicians from UL have enrolled within the University's School of Business & Economic Sciences, including Eddy Sánchez, as well as several economic advisors to Unidos Podemos.

Member of the Congress of Deputies

Garzón was first elected as a Deputy in the Spanish Parliament on the IU list for Málaga, following the

2011 Spanish general election The 2011 Spanish general election was held on Sunday, 20 November 2011, to elect the 10th Cortes Generales of the Kingdom of Spain. All 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies were up for election, as well as 208 of 266 seats in the Senate. An ele ...

. He was the youngest member of the House of Deputies during that session. In January 2013, he was elected as a member of UL's Federal Executive Committee.

Minister of Consumer Affairs

Garzón was appointed Minister of Consumer Affairs on 13 January 2020. In October 2021, Garzón announced that the ministry would ban the advertising of several categories of junk food to children under 16. Such advertising would be forbidden on television, on the radio, online, in movie theaters, and in newspapers. Affected foods include candy,

energy bar Energy bars are supplemental bars containing cereals, micronutrients, and flavor ingredients intended to supply quick food energy. Because most energy bars contain added protein, carbohydrates, dietary fiber, and other nutrients, they may be ma ...

s, cookies, cake,

juice Juice is a drink made from the extraction or pressing of the natural liquid contained in fruit and vegetables. It can also refer to liquids that are flavored with concentrate or other biological food sources, such as meat or seafood, such as ...

, energy drinks, and

ice cream Ice cream is a sweetened frozen food typically eaten as a snack or dessert. It may be made from milk or cream and is flavoured with a sweetener, either sugar or an alternative, and a spice, such as cocoa or vanilla, or with fruit such as ...

. The ban is to take effect during 2022.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Garzon, Alberto 1985 births Communist Party of Spain politicians Leaders of political parties in Spain Living people Marxian economists Members of the 10th Congress of Deputies (Spain) Members of the 11th Congress of Deputies (Spain) Members of the 12th Congress of Deputies (Spain) People from Logroño United Left (Spain) politicians Members of the 13th Congress of Deputies (Spain) Members of the 14th Congress of Deputies (Spain)