Miquel Iceta i Llorens is a Spanish politician and member of the Socialists' Party of Catalonia, currently First Secretary of the PSC since 2014. He's one of the first openly gay politicians from Spain. He has been a member of the 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th terms of the Parliament of Catalonia. He also was member of the 6th Congress of Deputies, representing Barcelona.
Biography
Born on 17 August 1960 in Barcelona, he began studying chemistry but abandoned his studies and focused on politics, combining this activity with his studies in economics at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, which he was unable to complete. He joined the Partido Socialista Popular de Cataluña in September 1977. A year later, in 1978, he joined the Juventud Socialista de Cataluña and the Partido de los Socialistas de Cataluña. Elected in the 1987 municipal elections, he served as a councillor in the Cornellá de LlobregatTown Hall from 1987 to 1991. A politician trusted by Narcís Serra, the latter, Vice-President of the Government, appointed him Director of the Analysis Department of the Cabinet of the Presidency of the Government, a responsibility he held from 1991 to 1995, when he became Deputy Director of the Cabinet. Included as a candidate in number 7 of the list of the PSC to the Congress of Deputies for Barcelona in the general elections of 1996, he was elected deputy for the sixth legislature. Iceta publicly declared his homosexuality in October 1999, during the campaign for the elections to the Parliament of Catalonia in 1999; he was then considered the first Spanish politician to do so. Elected as a regional deputy in the October 1999 elections, his resignation from the Congress of Deputies became effective on November 2, 1999. In July 2008, he became a member of the Federal Executive Committee of the PSOE. He was a member of the paper for the reform of the current Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia. In July 2014, he was elected, through primary elections and without rivals, as the new Secretary General of the PSC with 85% of the votes, replacing Pere Navarro. On 30 June 2015 he was elected PSC candidate for the presidency of the Generalitat de Catalunya for the regional elections of 27-S, in which his party won 16 seats.
