A key figure in Catalan politics
On this day in 1904, 120 years ago, in Barcelona, the lawyer and journalist Valentí Almirall i Llozer, who had been a key figure in Catalan politics during the Renaissance (second half of the 19th century), died. He was one of the founders of the Catalan republican and federalist movement, which proposed a new political architecture for the Spanish state. Admiral advocated for the transformation of Spain into a federal or confederal republic, and for the restoration of the self-governments of the historical nations: the Catalan state within the Spanish federal or confederal Republic which, half a century later (1931-1939) would claim presidents Macià and Companys. For this reason, Almirall is considered the father of modern Catalanism.
The beginnings of Valentí Almirall
Valentí Almirall was born in 1841 in Barcelona into a wealthy family, made up of Josep Almirall i Alier, a merchant of colonials, and Josepa Llozer i Cebrià, a member of a baronial family with its roots in the late Catalan Middle Ages. Nevertheless, Admiral never used the title of baron of the Papiol, which corresponded to him by primogeniture. During his youth he studied three university courses: Fine Arts (unfinished), Philosophy and, finally, Law. He also studied languages, and came to master six languages (Catalan, Spanish, French, English, Italian and German). His polyglot would allow him to travel all over Europe, learn about modern political and intellectual movements and form his republican and Catalanist ideology.
The political career of Valentí Almirall
He started in politics with the Glorious Revolution that dethroned and expelled Isabel II (1868). In 1870 he participated in the revolt against the forced recruitment of young Catalans into the Spanish army. In 1882 he founded the Catalan Centre, the first political party of Catalan obedience (from its ranks he condemned the Catalan politicians subject to the discipline of Madrid). In 1879 he founded Diari Català, the first newspaper published exclusively in the Catalan language. In 1885 he was editor-speaker of the Memorial of Greuges, addressed to Alfonso XII, which would inspire the Bases de Manresa (1892), the first serious attempt to recover self-government in Catalonia. And in 1886 he published his major work: Lo catalanisme.