Ballesteros, Pellicer and Poblet retire

Over the past ten years, several long-serving politicians from Tarragona have retired. In 2019, Josep Poblet, mayor of Vila-seca for 26 years (1993-2019), ended his long career in active politics, although he had been a councilor since 1987. He succeeded another historic but shorter-serving mayor, Joan Maria Pujals, and won a string of absolute majorities. He combined his last twelve years as mayor with the presidency of the Tarragona Provincial Council (2007-2019). He also served as a member of the Parliament of Catalonia for two short periods.

The PSC has also seen the retirement of important figures from recent decades. The most significant example has been Josep Fèlix Ballesteros, a councilor in Tarragona from 1983 to 2023, except for the period 1999-2003. Of those thirty-six years, he served as mayor of the city of Tarragona for twelve (2007-2019). He won back the mayoralty for the Socialists after 18 years under the Convergència i Unió (CiU) leader Nadal, but lost it to Pau Ricomà (ERC), despite winning more votes – they tied with seven councilors each. Political alliances prevented him from becoming mayor. He remained in the opposition for four years before retiring. In 2023, Carles Pellicer, mayor of Reus for twelve years with the CiU and Junts coalition, also retired. Pellicer was previously a CiU councilor in the Reus City Council between 1997-1999 and 2003-2011, the latter term leading the opposition against Lluís Miquel Pérez, whom he defeated at the polls in 2011, securing the mayoralty for the Convergència party for the first time after three years. He won two more elections – 2015 and 2019 – and retired from active politics in 2023. He also served as a member of the Catalan Parliament between 1999 and 2012. Returning to the PSC, another historical politician who retired in 2019 was Martí Carnicer, who was mayor of El Vendrell in two periods: 1979-1994 and 2013-2011. Carnicer, who was one of the youngest mayors in Catalonia at 28, also served as a member of the Catalan Parliament from 1984 until 2003, when he joined the Catalan Government as Secretary of Economy and Finance. After his second term as mayor, Carnicer handed over the Socialist leadership of the Baix Penedès capital to Kenneth Martínez.