Anxo Quintana
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Anxo Manuel Quintana González is the current leader of the Galician Nationalist Block (Bloque Nacionalista Galego), the main Galician Nationalist party, and also is currently a minority partner in the Galician Government or Xunta de Galicia. He is Vice-President and Minister of Social Affairs.
Quintana was born in Allariz on February 25, 1959. He has got a diploma in Nursery from the University of Vigo. He then worked at the Cristal Piñor Hospital in Ourense and he has been distinguished with a honorary award from the Society of General Medicine for his works in primary healthcare in rural communities.
He started collaborating with the rural nationalist trade unionism in his youth. He was a founding member of the Galician Nationalist Block (BNG) in 1982.
He rose to national prominence in 1989, when he was appointed as Major of Allariz, a small rural village, after a series of social unrests, and remained so until 2000. During his tenure of power, the tiny community was awarded the European Prize of Urbanism and it was chosen by the United Nations as one of the leading communities on sustainable development. From 1995 to 2000 Quintana was also chair of the Galician Federation of Provinces and Municipalities.
In 1999, he was appointed by the Galician Parliament as a senator in the Spanish Upper House (Senado) as the sole representative of the BNG.
In 2005, after having succeeded the charismatic Xosé Manuel Beiras at the helm of the BNG two years earlier, Quintana becomes the first Galician Nationalist to occupy the post of Vice-Minister in the Galician Government. The current coalition of the Socialist PSdG-PSOE, led by President Emilio Perez Touriño, and BNG managed to electorally outseat the Conservative Party PPdG led by Manuel Fraga for the first time in the 25 years that Galiza has been enjoying an Autonomous Government. The main tasks of the ruling coalition are the cleansing of public life, fighting against corruption, extend the ailing social services and achieve full national recognition of Galiza while staying inside the Spanish State.
