Antoni Comín

He graduated in arts and politics from the Autonomous University of Barcelona in 1996 and was awarded a Robert Schumann[3] Traineeship for work placement at the European Parliament headquarters in Luxembourg.

He embarked upon his professional teaching career at the Sacred Heart School in Barcelona, and between 1998 and 2017 he lectured in the Social Philosophy Department of Esade (Universitat Ramon Llull).

In the course of this first period of office as an MP, he was the secretary of the Institutional Affairs Commission, in which he played a prominent role in the drafting of the new Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia, which was ratified in the 2006 Referendum.

He was also actively involved in the policies implemented to promote the social economy and cooperativism of the Government of Catalonia, and also chaired the Interdepartmental Commission tasked with designing and managing the Minimum Integration Income.

9 conditions for a poverty-free world), which he curated and which was held in the Castle of Montjuïc, in 2010; in the Modernist Area of Sant Pau in 2011-2012 and in the Centre Cultural Fundació Caixa de Terrassa in 2013.

On 30 October, he was forced into exile to Brussels, together with president Carles Puigdemont and another three members of the government, Clara Ponsatí, Lluís Puig and Meritxell Serret.

[18] Antoni Comín i Oliveres and other members of the Catalan government escaped the day after having unilaterally and illegally proclaimed the independence of Catalonia, and remained in Belgium to avoid being prosecuted by Spanish Justice.

[20] On 7 December, more than 100,000 Catalans flooded the streets of Brussels’ European Quarter in the demonstration organised by Òmnium and the ANC under the slogan “Wake up, Europe!”, a turnout that exceeded all expectations.

For the first time in history, a separatist majority in parliament would agree to keep seats vacant for absented MP elect during the entire term of office, even though it is mandatory to swear and take up the post physically and he did not attended precisely because he fled to Belgium to avoid being prosecuted.

The elections to the European Parliament in 2019 heralded yet another tour de force with the Spanish Legal Authorities, who did their utmost to prevent the escape, Carles Puigdemont, Antoni Comín i Oliveres and Clara Ponsatí, from becoming MEPs.

[24] An appeal was lodged with the Contentious Room of the Supreme Court, whose response argued that Puigdemont, Ponsatí and Comín were “entitled to stand” in the European elections.

Finally, on 26 May, in the European elections, the list of Junts i Lliures per Europa of president Puigdemont prevailed in Catalonia, obtaining almost one million votes, giving it 2 seats.

[25] Following their election, the Electoral Commission refused to allow them to swear loyalty to the Spanish Constitution from Belgium, thus preventing them from taking up their seat at the beginning of their term of office.

In the meantime, on 14 October, judge Llarena issued a third European Arrest warrant against Carles Puigdemont and Antoni Comín for the offences of rebellion and misappropriation of public funds, hours after the Supreme Court had announced its ruling sentencing the nine leaders of the procés to between 9 and 13 years of imprisonment.

[28] On 29 February 2020, the Council staged a mass event in the Exhibition Park in Perpignan, with a turnout of more than 150,000 people, the most important political concentration ever organised in France.

In 1993, he joined the editorial board of the El Ciervo Journal – one of whose founders was his father, Alfonso Comín – where he worked and published articles regularly for more than 20 years until 2015.

Antoni Comín and Oliveres in Leuven , at an interview with Diario de Navarra , 2020.