Francisco Frutos

Who is Francisco Frutos?

Francisco Frutos Gras is a Spanish politician who was since 1998 until 2009, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Spain.

A son of peasants, Frutos worked until the age of 25 in agriculture, emigrating later to Germany, and then returning to Barcelona, where he was touched for the first time by trade unionism in a textile factory in Blanes. There he was an organiser of the then-clandestine Workers' Commissions. In 1963, Frutos joined the Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia, the fraternal party of PCE in Catalonia. In the 1970s he was elected organisational secretary of the Workers' Commission of Catalonia, and represented the union in the Assembly of Catalonia. Frutos was also a member of the Confederation Executive Committee of CCOO. In 1980, Frutos was elected a member of the Parliament of Catalonia, and in 1981 General Secretary of PSUC. He would remain in those positions until 1982 and 1984, respectively. During that period Frutos oversaw different disputes between Leninists and eurocommunists, that led to the expulsion of the Leninist majority, including Chairman Pere Andarica, that would later become the Communists' Party of Catalonia.