Ferran Mascarell: Socialist returns to the Ministry he headed 4 years ago

Barcelona (ACN).- Ferran Mascarell has been the main surprise among the new Government’s appointments, although he has already been critical of his now former party and participated in Mas’ project to unify pro-Catalan political sensibilities. In the last months of Pasqual Maragall’s left-wing government coalition (2003-2006), Ferran Mascarell headed the Ministry for Culture. When Maragall left power, he was not reappointed and he went to the private sector. Mascarell was one of the main representatives of the pro-Catalan sector of the Catalan Socialist Party (PSC), the main opposition party. His name was even put forward as the possible PSC candidate for Mayor of Barcelona. However, Mascarell did not have enough support in the party. With this hiring, the leader of the Centre-Right Catalan Nationalist Coalition (CiU), Artur Mas, launches another crisis in the PSC.

Ferran Mascarell was born near Barcelona (in Sant Just Desvern) in 1951. He graduated in History at the Universitat de Barcelona. Mascarell’s career has always been linked to cultural management. He was the editor and director of the history magazine, ‘L’Avenç’, between 1977 and 1984. In 1982, he was one of the promoters of the Association of Periodical Publications written in Catalan Language. In 1983, he started to be involved in politics, in the orbit of the Catalan Socialist Party. He was appointed Director for Publications of Barcelona Provincial Council. He developed the initial project of the Contemporary Culture Centre of Barcelona (CCCB). Between 1987 and 1991, he coordinated the Area of Culture of Barcelona’s City Council.

Later, he became Catalonia’s Delegate of the Authors and Editors General Society (in charge of copyright and royalty management in Spain). In 1996 he came back to Barcelona’s City Council and was appointed Managing Director of Barcelona’s Institute of Culture. He promoted successful cultural initiatives such as the festival of Barcelona’s Patron Saint and the Grec Summer Art Festival.

In 1999, his political responsibilities increased. He became councillor for Culture in Barcelona’s City Government and councillor for the Gràcia district. In this position he developed Barcelona’s Library Plan and the Cultural Equipment Plan. He has also been a board member of many foundations and city institutions, such as Barcelona Television, the National Museum of Art of Catalonia and the Liceu Opera Theater. He was also a member of the Administration Board of the Universal Forum of Culture – Barcelona 2004.

In 2006, Pasqual Maragall, former Mayor of Barcelona and then President of the Catalan Government appointed Mascarell as the new Minister for Culture. He held the office for only 8 months, as Maragall called elections early. In 2007 he left frontline politics and joined the private sector. Now, after months of speculation that he could be the substitute for the current Socialist Mayor of Barcelona, Mascarell comes back to politics, but in a Centre-Right government.