[1] In his youth, and during the last years of the Franco's dictatorship Piqué was a member of extreme left organization Red Flag, and the Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia.

[5][6] That year, Piqué was named by Catalan president Jordi Pujol, Director General of Industry, an office he held until 1988 when returned to the private sector.

[4][1] In view of the 1996 general elections, the leader of the People's Party (PP) and of the opposition José María Aznar wanted to improve his image in Catalonia and get closer to the business community and the Catalan bourgeoisie as it was a decisive territory in electoral terms.

[1] So in 1995, through the president of the Catalan employers' association Foment del Treball [es] Joan Rossell, he contacted Josep Piqué.

[15] As part of a cabinet reshuffle, he was replaced by Ana de Palacio y del Valle-Lersundi and instead took over the Ministry of Science and Technology, which oversees the telecommunications industry.

[5] After his time at the General Directorate of Industry of the Catalan government, Piqué returned to the private sector, when he was called by the businessman Javier de la Rosa to become CEO and president of the chemical company Ercros in 1989.

Set up by Bulgaria's Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev, the advisory board was chaired by Dominique de Villepin and mandated to recommend ways to help the country adjust to EU membership.

[26] In addition, Piqué served on the Political Sponsorship Committee of the Institut de Prospective Economique du Monde Méditerranéen (IPEMED).

[27] In 2009 he launched Pangea21 Consultora Internacional, a small firm in Barcelona to provide consulting services and management advice in all kinds of international business.

[30] Piqué's oratory was recognized as sharp and brilliant, and he maintained the policy of dialogue, negotiation and moderate conservatism as the axis of his political mood, as well as defender of the autonomic system.