Spanish Minister for Employment’s announcement to run in Catalan elections provokes agitation

Barcelona (ACN).- The news has been finally confirmed. Celestino Corbacho, the current Spanish Minister for Employment, will come back to Catalonia on the Catalan Socialist Party’s list for the Parliament, headed by the current President, José Montilla. Opposition parties have linked Corbacho to the very high unemployment figures, as he has been the Minister for Employment for the last 2 years.

With this move, Corbacho will resign from the Spanish Government in October, after the General Strike on the 29^th of September. Prime Minister Zapatero will able to restructure his government in October and Corbacho will take responsibility for union protests. Corbacho was the Mayor of L’Hospitalet del Llobregat for almost 14 years, a large working-class city close to Barcelona, until he joined Zapatero’s government in April 2008. He represents a more Spanish-side of the Catalan Socialist Party (PSC) and will reinforce this image in the middle of an identity debate in Catalonia with the Spanish Constitutional Court’s decision to reduce Catalan self-government.