In just under two months, Yolanda Diaz had to fine-tune its electoral space after the early call announced by Pedro Sanchez for surprise. The leader of Sumar did not hesitate for a second to place Ernest Urtasun, with whom he had been working for months, as spokesperson for his training. His baggage in European Parliament, where he trained for years and his extensive organizational experience made him the perfect profile for the complex work that was ahead of them. Now, Díaz wanted to reward his ‘strong man’ with the culture Ministry.
Urtasun (Barcelona, 1982) study Economy at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, where he would later pursue a postgraduate degree in International relations. The son of PSUC militants, he soon became involved in politics. At the age of fifteen he began to serve in the military Young People of Esquerra Verda and within a few years he was already in the direction of the Initiative for Catalunya Verds. In 2004 she ran in the European elections on the ICV list headed by Raul Romeva.
He did not manage to be elected, but Romeva did, ultimately Minister of Foreign Affairs with the former president. Carles Puigdemont. Urtasun worked as an advisor to Romeva in the European Parliament since 2004 to 2008, beginning to know the innards of the European Parliament. Two years later she passed the opposition and entered the diplomatic careerassuming different responsibilities in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Return to politics
The tranquility did not last long. In 2014 he requested a leave of absence and ran again as a candidate for The Plural Left -a coalition of IU and the Greens- to the European Parliament, winning the seat. In those elections he made his stellar entry to Podemos, obtaining five positions, among them for Pablo Iglesias, Pablo Echenique and Teresa Rodriguez. Since then, Urtasun has been working in the European Parliament and in the organization of Catalan political spaces, negotiating the integration of ICV in In Comú Podem.
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Precisely, Díaz has been forming his hard core over the years with members of the commons, such as his current chief of staff, Josep Vendrell. This closeness, added to Urtasun’s past, free of controversy, led her to place him as the voice of her political project in the face of the general elections from last 23-J. However, she did not include him on the electoral lists, which suggested that the leader of Sumar preferred to keep him as her ‘strong man’ in Europewhere Díaz believes that many battles will take place in the coming years.
Urtasun is also a clearly green profile. Currently, it is vice-president of the Green Group/European Free Alliance in Parliament. His election therefore represents support for a strategy different from that of Unidas Podemos – the coalition with which he ran in 2019 – which, in Europe, was integrated into the Confederal Group of the European United Left/Nordic Green Left. Now, Díaz wants him close to face a high-intensity legislature. Both within the Government (with the PSOE), and within the parliamentary group (with Podemos), and in Congress (with all the partners).