Joaquim Nadal i Farreras (born 31 January 1948) is a Spanish politician and historian from Catalonia. He is a professor at the University of Girona and was the Minister of Territorial Policy and Public Works of the Catalan Government, the Generalitat de Catalunya, from December 2003 to December 2010. Years as mayor of Girona (1979-2002) In 1979, he was the first mayor of Girona democratically elected after the Spanish transition, from the PSC). He resigned in 2002, in favour of his substitute Anna Pagans i Gruartmoner, also from the PSC. During his term of office as mayor of Girona, he launched the reform of the Barri Vell (1982), together with the promotion of the Call Jueu, the ancient Jewish neighbourhood. He also put into practice the widening and improvement of the social services’ infrastructures, bringing balance to the inequalities among neighbourhoods. As mayor of Girona, he also held the post of president of the Federation of Catalan Municipalities (1981–1985). He was the PSC candidate for the presidency of the Generalitat in the 1995 elections for the Catalan Parliament, of which he was member from 1984 to 2012. He is the first secretary of the Socialists' Party of Catalonia (PSC) at Girona since 2008. Period in Catalan government (2003-2010) In the year 2003, he joined the government of Pasqual Maragall (PSC) as Councillor of Territorial Policy and Public Works, also serving as the Spokesman of the Catalan Government. He was considered the fourth-ranking member of the government. Nadal presided the Department of Territorial Policy and Public Works in 2005 during the crisis of El Carmel, when construction work to lengthen Barcelona Metro line 5 caused a building to collapse and forced the evacuation of 84 other buildings. Convergence and Union, then the opposition group in the Catalan Parliament, called on Nadal to resign, considering him the councillor responsible for the safety of public works projects, whereas the government blamed the opposition party for poor planning of the project during the last government of Jordi Pujol. As head of the department, Nadal promoted and approved the Catalan Plan for Transport Infrastructures to regulate all new road and railway infrastructures of Catalonia until 2026. The plan included a railway cross axis to link central Catalonia with the Lleida and Girona areas. When the governing three-party coalition was broken by the removal of those councillors belonging to the Republican Left of Catalonia in May