Anna Simó i Castelló (born 26 July 1968) is a Spanish Catalan politician. A member of the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC), she became the Minister of Social Welfare and Family Affairs of the Generalitat de Catalunya in 2003 as part of the first "Tripartite" coalition government formed by the Socialists' Party of Catalonia, ERC and Initiative for Catalonia Greens, a position she held until ERC's ministers were removed from the government in May 2006. Education and professional background Anna Simó earned an undergraduate degree in Catalan philology from the University of Barcelona in 1991 and went on to complete a post-degree program in language planning at the same university in 1992. From 1990 to 2003, she worked for the Linguistic Normalisation Consortium (Consorci per a la normalització lingüística), including a stint as the head of the Linguistic Normalisation Center in the Ciutat Vella district of Barcelona. Civic background She is a member of several associations, including Ca la Dona (Woman's House), the Centre Catòlic de L'Hospitalet (Catholic Center of L'Hospitalet) and the Centre d’Estudis de L'Hospitalet (L'Hospitalet Studies Center). She has also been affiliated with the CONC, a Catalan union confederated with the CCOO, since 1990, and served on the works council of the Linguistic Normalisation Consortium. Political career A member of the Republican Left of Catalonia since 1990, Simó was president of the local branch of ERC in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat from 1996 to 2002. She has been a member of the ERC's national council since 1994 and of its national executive council since 1998, serving as the party's national secretary for social policy from 2001 to 2004. Simó was elected to the city council of l'Hospitalet in May 2003 and named to the local council of the Barcelonès comarca, resigning both posts when she entered the Catalan government later that year. She was elected to the Catalan parliament in 2006 and was the spokeswoman for the party's parliamentary group, a position she held since 2008. Simó was named first secretary of the Parliament on 26 October 2015 until the dissolution of the parliament by the application of Article 155 on 27 October 2017. Catalan independence crisis and judicial case On 27 October 2017 the Catalan Parliament declared independence in a vote boycotted by opposition MPs. Almost immediately the Senate of Spain invoked article 155 of the constitution, dismissing Puigdemont and the Catalan government and imposing direct rule