After the People's Party election in 1996, Piqué was appointed as Spanish Minister for Industry as an independent member. He served as Spain's foreign minister from 2000 to 2002 and he was the president of the Partit Popular de Catalunya from October 2002. He resigned from this position in July 2007 after disagreement over the political direction that the central PP (Partido Popular, People's Party) wanted to impose over the Catalan branch of the party. After serving in the Spanish Congress from 2000 he resigned in 2003 after being elected to the Parliament of Catalonia.