Mayor of Barcelona (Spain)

Jordi Hereu i Boher has been Mayor of Barcelona since 8 September 2006. He was born on 14 June 1965 in Barcelona. He spent his childhood in the old centre of Sant Gervasi, where his parents had settled due to the demands of their family business, having earlier lived in the old city, Ciutat Vella, and the Eixample district. His grandparents, from the county of Pallars Jussà, had moved to Barcelona early in the 20th century.

He received his primary and secondary education at the Escola Sant Gregori. Later he obtained a degree and masters in Business Administration and Management from the ESADE Business School. He is married with two children.

He began his professional career in the private sector, although most of it has been spent in the public sector. In 1991, he became Marketing Manager at Port 2000. Between 1992 and 1997, he held the post of Marketing Director at Centro Intermodal de Logística SA (CILSA), logistics promoter for the Port of Barcelona logistics platform ZAL.

His interest in politics was aroused after he finished school and developed during his years in higher education. He remembers his first contact with politics was in September 1976, when he attended a meeting of the Reagrupament Socialista in L'Escala, where he heard one of the movement's founders, Josep Pallach. Since 1987, he has been a member of the Catalan Socialist Party (Partit dels Socialistes de Catalunya - PSC).

Among the people who he believes have influenced his political and social thinking, he cites Jacques Maritain, Emmanuel Mounier, Josep Pallach, Jordi Galí, Willy Brandt, Vaclav Havel and Czeslaw Milosz.

Jordi Hereu has been linked to Barcelona City Council since 1997, the year he took over as Les Corts District Manager. Two years later, following the local elections in 1999, he was appointed Les Corts City Councillor, a position he held for the next four years until the end of the mandate. Among other initiatives he was behind the renovation of two city neighbourhoods, the Casc Antic and Colònia Castells, as well as reshaping the northern entrance to the city, the so-called Porta Nord on Av.Diagonal.

In 2003, he was nominated Sant Andreu District Councillor and the City Councillor for Safety and Mobility. Until early 2006 he combined both roles, overseeing and implementing major schemes that included setting up neighbourhood parking schemes (the green zones), introducing traffic calming measures and modernising the Guàrdia Urbana (Barcelona city police). This coincided with a change in the model of policing produced by the deployment of the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police).

From April 2006, until he was elected Mayor, he was the Council Executive Spokesperson and Fifth Deputy Mayor, Councillor for Mobility, Councillor for Citizen Participation, Solidarity and Cooperation, and Gràcia District Council Chairman.

Jordi Hereu was re-elected Mayor of Barcelona in June 2007 after winning the local elections.

The priorities he has set out for the current term of office, which finishes in the spring of 2011, can be summed up in three core concepts: cohesion, creativity and capital city.

Social and territorial cohesion means ensuring a level of welfare and quality of urban life for every citizen and every one of the 73 neighbourhoods that make up Barcelona, on the basis of hard work and fairness and through active policies on education, social care, housing, amenities and services. Creativity is the defining characteristic of a Barcelona fully equipped for generating economic growth, excelling in key areas like innovation, research, new technologies and culture. Capital of Catalonia is something inherent. It means a close link between Catalonia and Barcelona, the motor of Catalonia's development. This requires a leap forward in infrastructures and urban renewal, and resources to match its aspirations and potential. A leap forward that strengthens Barcelona's position at the core of the metropolitan area and as an essential model for the whole of Spain.
Jordi Hereu understands political action in terms of its proximity to the interests, problems and desires of the people and believes it is based on certain values too. His own words are revealing in this regard: “Cities that develop are sustained by certain collective values that are the essence of life in society and ultimately determine their strength. Liberty, equality, solidarity, dialogue, coexistence, respect, trust: these are the values that define and describe Barcelona