Joan Subirats, new Minister of Universities

The Minister of Universities, Manuel Castells, is leaving the State Government after almost two years and will be replaced by the former Mayor of Barcelona, ​​Joan Subirats.

Joan Subirats (Barcelona, ​​1951) is Professor of Political Science at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) and was the number 2 of Ada Colau in the lists of the last municipal elections, in May 2019. At that time he became the first deputy mayor of culture and education, and assumed the vice-presidency of the Barcelona Education Consortium.

Subirats has had a lot of projection in the media, as a columnist and socialite. He has been director of the UAB Institute of Government and Public Policies and collaborator in media such as El País, ARA, Crític, la Ser and Catalunya Plural. He is one of the founders of the Fundació Periodisme Plural, which publishes Catalunya Plural and El Diari de l'Educació, among others, and before entering politics in 2017 (as the City Council's Culture Commissioner), he was a member of the its board of trustees.