A triumvirate of women will lead Parliament

BarcelonaThe Parliament's board has decided this Wednesday to replace the Secretary General and the chamber's senior lawyer. Thus, Clara Marsan and Anna Casas will replace Albert Capelleras and Miquel Palomares, respectively. Sources from the board have argued the decision by the will to give a "new boost", coinciding with the midpoint of the legislature, which will be completed on June 10, and given the confirmation that the approval of the Generalitat's budgets will give continuity to the legislature. The two chosen names are a proposal from the President of the Parliament, Josep Rull, which has been approved by the board unanimously. Marsan and Casas will be the Secretary General and the senior lawyer from June 1. Thus, the Parliament will have a triumvirate of women at the head of the institution's management, taking into account that Anna Torné recently joined as director of internal government, responsible for personnel management.

The board highlights that Marsan has been a lawyer at the Parliament since 2019 and is connected with new technologies. Until now, she has been secretary of the Parliament's Advisory Council on Science and Technology (CAPCIT), an advisory body of the Parliament on technology. Precisely, the chamber's adaptation to new technologies is one of the challenges the board wants to face. In this Wednesday's board meeting where the replacements were made official, President Rull stated that this is not a break in an era but a replacement.

Organizational sources have thanked the work of the current Secretary General and recalled that Capelleras arrived at the position at a very complex time for the Parliament. In this regard, they highlight that his work has contributed to the agreement with the chamber's staff and to "social peace". Albert Capelleras was chosen as the new Secretary General of the Parliament on September 4, 2023, under the presidency of Anna Erra. And he has been a lawyer for the Catalan chamber since March 2023.

The eighth Secretary General

Since the restoration of the Parliament in 1980, the general secretaries (until 2006 senior officials according to the old designation) have been Robert Vergés (1980-1981), Ismael Pitarch (1981-1999), Imma Folchi (1999-2015), Pere Sol (2015-2016), Xavier Muro (2016-2021), Esther Andreu (2021-2022), Miquel Palomares (2022-2023) and Albert Capelleras (2023-2026). In accordance with the Parliament's regulations, the general secretary, under the direction of the presidency and the bureau, is the highest-ranking official of all staff and all services of the Parliament and carries out the technical support and advisory functions to the chamber's governing bodies, assisted by the legal advisors. He is appointed by the bureau, at the proposal of the presidency, from among the chamber's legal advisors.

Miquel Palomares also leaves the position of chief legal advisor, a role he has held since 2021. Furthermore, from June 2022 to September 2023, he combined these duties with those of general secretary following the resignation of legal advisor Esther Andreu. Sources from the bureau assure that Palomares will continue to play a key role as head of the Parliament's external office, which has recently been strengthened with two additional positions. They also highlighted his work in recent months advising the bureau on matters of hate speech. Anna Casas will be the new chief legal advisor of the Parliament from June 1st, and the first woman to hold this position. She has been a legal advisor to the chamber since 2002, and until now, head of the parliamentary management department since 2015.

The changes in the general secretariat and the position of chief legal advisor follow the appointment of Anna Torné as director of internal affairs. The position of director of internal affairs had been vacant for four years, and last year the bureau decided to open the selection process to all career civil servants of the Generalitat. With these three recent changes in the Parliament's main management positions, the bureau considers that a "new era" is beginning to provide new impetus to the set challenges: Parliament expansion, internationalization, adaptation to technology, and opening up to citizens.