The leader of the Catalan socialist and former Minister of Health, Salvador Illa, will take the stage at LSE to share his view on how to strengthen Europe from Catalonia, working with the rest of Spain to build a strong and resilient EU in an increasing volatile world.

The elections in Catalonia significantly alter the political landscape at the national level and portend an uncertain future for the legislature. What will be the future of Catalonia and its role in Spanish and EU's challenges?

Meet the speaker

Salvador Illa Roca (La Roca del Vallés, Catalonia, Spain, 1966) had a long career in local and regional politics before becoming Minister of Health (2020-2021) during the government of Pedro Sanchez, in charge of directing the Spanish strategy to fight the COVID pandemic. He left the Ministry of Health in 2021 to become the candidate of the PSC (Catalan Socialist Party) for the Regional Catalan elections of that year. Currently, he is the Secretary General of the PSC and leader of the opposition in the Catalonian Parliament.

Meet our chair

Professor Andrés Rodríguez-Pose is the Princesa de Asturias Chair and a Professor of Economic Geography at the London School of Economics. He is the Director of the Cañada Blanch Centre LSE. He is a former Head of the Department of Geography and Environment between 2006 and 2009. He is a past-President of the Regional Science Association International (RSAI) (2015-2017) and served as Vice-President of the RSAI in 2014. He was also Vice-President (2012-2013) and Secretary (2001-2005) of the European Regional Science Association.

This public event is free and open to all and registration is not required. This event will be a hybrid event, with an in-person audience and an online audience.

Hong Kong Theatre (LSE)

Clement House, 99 Aldwych

London WC2B 4BG

United Kingdom

For the online event: this event will be streamed live on Youtube:

Streaming

More about this event

The Cañada-Blanch Centre at LSE is the vehicle to achieve the objective of the Fundación Cañada Blanch: developing and reinforcing the links between the United Kingdom and Spain. This is done by means of fostering cutting-edge knowledge generation and joint research projects between researchers in the United Kingdom, and at LSE in particular, on the one hand, and Spain, on the other.

Through the YouTube channel of the Cañada Blanch Foundation, you'll have access to content from previous editions, such as the one featuring Nadia Calviño, former First Vice President of Spain, Pablo Hernandez de Cos, the current Governor of the Bank of Spain, or Elisa Ferreira, Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms of the European Commission.