Ernest Lluch

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Ernest Lluch Martín, (21 January 1937-November 21, 2000) was a Catalan Spanish economist and politician, and Minister of Health and Consumption from 1982-1986 in the first post-Francisco Franco Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) government of Felipe González. He was assassinated in 2000 by the Basque separatist organisation, ETA.

Lluch was born in Vilassar de Mar, Barcelona province. He gained his doctorate in Economic Sciences at the University of Barcelona, and studied further at the Sorbonne in Paris. As assistant professor at the University of Barcelona, he was detained on several occasions and expelled from the University for his anti-francoist political activity. He served as professor of Economics at the University of Valencia (1974) and History of Economic Doctrines of the University of Barcelona. His last official position was as Director of the Menéndez Pelayo International University in Santander, from 1989 to 1995.

In April 1980 he was chosen as spokesman of the Socialists' Party of Catalonia, PSC (the local wing of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party, PSOE) to the Spanish Congress of Deputies, and, two years later, in the elections of October 1982, he was chosen as a deputy by the PSC. Felipe González named him Minister of Health and Consumption in the first PSOE government, a position he held until 1986.

In May 1986 he retired from politics to resume the chair of History of Economic Doctrines of the University of Barcelona. On January 2, 1989, he took up his position as Director of the Menéndez Pelayo International University in Santander.

He was assassinated by ETA terrorists who shot him twice in the head at his home, in 2000. At a UEFA soccer match with Club Brugge later that week, FC Barcelona came onto the pitch wearing black armbands in honor of Lluch, who had also been a fervent supporter of the team.