The former mayor of L’Hospitalet and former minister will leave the Barcelona City Council in the coming weeks, where he is mayor of the Liberals in Barcelona
Celestino Corbacho says goodbye to politics. The veteran ex-leader of the PSC, remembered for having been mayor of l’Hospitalet de Llobregat and Minister of Labor, has served as an independent councilor for Ciutadans in the Barcelona City Council since 2019, when he joined the list with which former French Prime Minister Manuel Valls ventured to compete for command in the Catalan capital. Corbacho announced this afternoon in the Ecology and Urbanism commission in the consistory that he will leave the public scene in the coming weeks.
“This resignation is a personal decision but, above all, it is a promise to my wife that before November 14, 2022, which is my anniversary, I would leave my political and institutional responsibilities,” said Corbacho, who has watered his speeches in the commission with a multitude of memories and anecdotes from his long journey in Catalan and Spanish politics. Cs has explained that the councilor will maintain the position until the municipal plenary session next week. From October He will be relieved by Noemí Martín, until now counselor of the Liberals in the Nou Barris district. Ironically, the councilor has assured that getting rid of public responsibilities now “is the best decision” that he has made in his life. Corbacho commanded the City Council of L’Hospitalet de Llobregat under the acronym of the PSC between 1994 and 2008, when he moved to Madrid to occupy a position in the Council of Ministers of the second government of former President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. He assumed the Labor portfolio for two years. Besides, between 2004 and 2008 he presided over the Barcelona Provincial Councilwhere he now occupies a seat representing Cs.
In favor of the investiture of Colau
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The historic socialist president was separating himself from the PSC as the pro-independence ‘procés’ gained momentum. From his time at the Barcelona City Council, it stands out that he was one of the three of the six councilors of the Barcelona pel Canvi candidacy who with his votes he prevented the republican Ernest Maragall from being sworn in as mayor after the municipal elections of 2019. Corbacho joined his vote with that of Valls and the current leader of the right-wing Valents formation, Eva Parera, to invest Ada Colau and frustrate the Mayor’s office from passing into the hands of an independentista.
The vote caused the rupture between Cs and the former French Prime Minister. Despite distancing himself from the order of the orange formation, Corbacho remained faithful to the discipline of the liberal party, in which he has never joined.