Francesc Antich, President of the Baleares government
larger | smaller
By m.p. - Mar 30, 2009 - 7:59 AM
Francesc Antich was invested as President of the Baleares government on 4th July 2007 for the second time in his career.

Born in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, in 1958, Francesc Antich i Oliver was still a child when his parents decided to return to their home town, Algaida, on the island of Mallorca. A qualified lawyer, he has held positions in all levels of state administration during his political career, with his first as a councillor in his parents’ home town between 1987 and 1991. He then became Mayor of Algaida from 1991 until 1997 for the PSIB-PSOE party, and during that period, was also a member of the Baleares parliament (1992-2004), where he was spokesman for the Socialist parliamentary grouping. He was president of the environment commission for the island government of Mallorca – the Consell Insular – for four years in the second half of the 1990s, and had a time at the head of the planning department in the Town Hall of the Balearics capital, Palma.

In 1998, the PSIB-PSOE party chose Francesc Antich to stand as their candidate for Presidency of the Baleares regional government in the elections which were due to take place the following year. Presidency had been in the hands of the Partido Popular – initially, as its predecessor, the Alianza Popular – since the islands first achieved autonomy in 1983, and the PP President of the islands, Jaume Matas, was governing with an absolute majority. The results of the 1999 poll saw the Partido Popular lose their majority, and Francesc Antich was able to form a government under the so-called ‘Pacto de Progreso’ – ‘Pact for Progress,’ a five-party alliance which was to govern the islands for the next four years. He took possession as the President of Baleares on 27th June 1999.

The Partido Popular regained their absolute majority in 2003 and Jaume Matas returned to Presidency of the regional government. Francesc Antich stood as a candidate for Congress the following year, and was voted in as a Socialist member of parliament for the Illes Baleares.
Antich stood again as the Socialist candidate for the 2007 regional poll in Baleares, an election which saw the Partido Popular returned as the most-voted party, with Jaume Matas again as their candidate for Presidency. The party was, however, just one seat away from holding onto their absolute majority, and Matas announced in June that year that he was retiring from politics after the news came from Unió Mallorquina that it would support the Socialist candidate as the new President of the Balearic Islands.

Francesc Antich was invested as President of the Baleares government on 4th July 2007 for the second time in his career. He is currently General Secretary of PSIB-PSOE.

Click here for related stories

 mobile |  email this article |  printer friendly page

 del.icio.us |  digg |  technorati |  yahoo | Stumble It!
Facebook | Reddit | Newsvine | Meneame | Wikio
Blink | Google | Fresqui | MSN reporters | Live Spaces
My Space | Fark | Mixx | Twitter

Spain Features : Profiles

Readers' comments:
Please keep to the subject. Opinions published here are of our visitors, not the Typically Spanish team. Comments which go against Spanish laws or which are libellous are not allowed. We reserve the right to delete any comment we wish. Placing a comment indicates you have read our terms and conditions and privacy policy .

Por favor, céntrate en el tema. Son las opiniones de los internautas, y no las de Typically Spanish. No está permitido verter comentarios contrarios a las leyes españolas o injuriantes. Reservado el derecho a eliminar los comentarios que consideremos fuera de tema. Escribir un comentario indica que has leído nuestros condiciones de uso y politica de privacidad .