Joan Saura i Laporta is a Green ICV Spanish politician in Catalonia. He was born in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

Catalonia Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a '' nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the nort ...

, in 1950. He studied at the Escola d'Enginyeria Tècnica (Technical Engineering School), where he specialized in Industrial Chemistry. In the beginning, he was devoted to the trade union and the neighbourhood: he enrolled into the

Workers' Commissions The Workers' Commissions ( es, Comisiones Obreras, CCOO) since the 1970s has become the largest trade union in Spain. It has more than one million members, and is the most successful union in labor elections, competing with the Unión General de ...

(CCOO) in 1973, while he was working for the electrics company FECSA, and cofounded the ''La Florida Neighbourhood Association'', in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, 1974.

Municipal policy

He became town councillor in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat for the

Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia The Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia ( ca, Partit Socialista Unificat de Catalunya, PSUC) was a Communism, communist political party active in Catalonia between 1936 and 1997. It was the Catalan branch of the Communist Party of Spain and the o ...

(PSUC) in the first democratic local elections in 1979, where he participated in the formation of the government, and remained a councillor until 1991. He also chaired (from 1983 to 1987) the Public Transport commission in

Parliament of Catalonia

He was elected for the third and fourth Legislatures (1988 to 1995) as deputy for

in the

Catalan Parliament The Parliament of Catalonia ( ca, Parlament de Catalunya, ; es, Parlamento de Cataluña; oc, Parlament de Catalonha) is the unicameral legislature of the autonomous community of Catalonia, Spain. The Parliament is currently made up of 135 mem ...

for the

Iniciativa per Catalunya Verds Initiative for Catalonia Greens ( ca, Iniciativa per Catalunya Verds, ICV; ) was an eco-socialist political party in Catalonia. It was formed as a merger of Iniciativa per Catalunya and Els Verds. IC had been an alliance led by Partit Sociali ...

(ICV) party. He was the spokesperson of his party's group and became its president in 1993. In this Parliament he has held several positions, including membership in the Economy, Finances and Budget commission, in the Industry commission, Territorial Politics as well as various others.

Congress of the Deputies

On 3 March 1996 he was elected to the

Spanish Congress of Deputies The Congress of Deputies ( es, link=no, Congreso de los Diputados, italic=unset) is the lower house of the Cortes Generales, Spain's legislative branch. The Congress meets in the Palace of the Parliament () in Madrid. It has 350 members elect ...

representing Barcelona Province and was re-elected at the subsequent election on 12 March 2000, where he was involved in several Parliamentary Commissions (such as Environment and Defense). As a deputy, Joan Saura promoted several initiatives, such as a rise in the minimum wage, a fight against workplace abuses by employers,

same-sex marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being Mexico, constituting ...

and the

Tobin tax A Tobin tax was originally defined as a tax on all spot conversions of one currency into another. It was suggested by James Tobin, an economist who won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. Tobin's tax was originally intended to pen ...

. Additionally, he was strongly opposed to other ones: the Plan Hidrológico Nacional (PHN), the reform of the labour market law, the quality in teaching law, the political parties' law, the tax reform, the Prestige affair and the

2003 invasion of Iraq The 2003 invasion of Iraq was a United States-led invasion of the Republic of Iraq and the first stage of the Iraq War. The invasion phase began on 19 March 2003 (air) and 20 March 2003 (ground) and lasted just over one month, including 26 ...

President of ICV

Within ICV, he served as vice-president from 1993 as well as the head of political relations with

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

. At the 6th Assembly of the party in November 2000, he was elected as ICV President. In June 2002 the party formed an electoral pact with United Left, and Els Verds-Esquerra Ecologista.

A Generalitat candidate

On 25 May 2002 he was chosen as the candidate for the presidency of the

Generalitat de Catalunya The Generalitat de Catalunya (; oc, label= Aranese, Generalitat de Catalonha; es, Generalidad de Cataluña), or the Government of Catalonia, is the institutional system by which Catalonia politically organizes its self-government. It is formed ...

by the ICV-EUiA coalition. For that reason, he set up in 2002 a Participative Process and the "What do you think?" campaign, to define the axis of the party's program based on civil participation. In the elections of 2003, his party won 9 seats in the

and he, after few months of negotiation, became Minister of Institutional Relations and Participation.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saura I Laporta, Joan 1950 births Initiative for Catalonia Greens politicians Interior ministers of Catalonia Living people Members of the 7th Congress of Deputies (Spain) Members of the 8th Congress of Deputies (Spain) Members of the Parliament of Catalonia Members of the 9th Senate of Spain Members of the 10th Senate of Spain Ministers of Institutional Relations and Participation of Generalitat de Catalunya Politicians from Barcelona