Europe Explained – Who is Josep Borrell – EU foreign affairs chief
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The 72-year old Spanish foreign minister, Josep Borrell, is making his return to high-level EU politics after having led the European Parliament between 2004 and 2007. Prior to taking up the EU foreign policy chief post, he stood out by leading EU diplomacy on the Venezuela crisis and by campaigning against Catalan independence. He has also mocked “cowboy” US president Donald Trump for threatening military intervention in Caracas and proposing to build an anti-migrant wall across the Sahara desert.
Borrell rose from humble origins, as a baker’s son in a village in the mountains of north Catalonia. He also worked on building sites, farms, and in restaurants and vineyards in his youth. He trained as an engineer in Madrid and obtained masters degrees in the US and in France.
He joined the socialist party, the PSOE, in 1975 and entered politics in 1979 by becoming a councillor in Madrid. He then held the posts of finance secretary of state and minister of public works and transport before taking the party chair in 1998. His finance stint saw him battle a flamenco star, Lola Flores, in an infamous 1980s tax-evasion case, but he later stepped down himself as party head after a fraud investigation and more recently he was fined €30,000 for insider trading in an energy firm.
Borrell also represented Spain on the convention which drafted the defunct European constitution in 2011, where he was credited with helping keep references to Christianity out of the charter. Also an advocate of LGBTI rights, he said at the time: “When it comes to democracy, human rights and equality, God is a recent convert. He was comfortable for centuries with slavery”.
