Manuel Broseta Pont (13 October 1932 – 15 February 1992) was a Spanish academic and politician. He was a member of the Senate of Spain between 1979 and 1982 and he served as State Secretary for

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for the Union of the Democratic Centre (UCD) between 1980 and 1982. He was also a member of the

Spanish Council of State The Council of State ( es, Consejo de Estado), is the supreme consultative council of the Spanish Government. The current Council of State was established in 1980 according to the article 107 of the Constitution of 1978. The institution of the C ...

. Broseta was assassinated by

ETA Eta (uppercase , lowercase ; grc, ἦτα ''ē̂ta'' or ell, ήτα ''ita'' ) is the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the close front unrounded vowel . Originally denoting the voiceless glottal fricative in most dialects, ...

members on 15 February 1992.

Early life

Broseta was born in

Banyeres de Mariola Banyeres de Mariola () is a settlement and a municipality in the north of the province of Alicante (Spain), 860 metres above sea level, with a population of 7,500. The main employer is the local textile industry. The town has a Moorish castle th ...

in the Province of Alicante. He however moved to the city of

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. The wider urban area al ...

at an early age and went to school there. His father, a member of the Republican Left was temporarily arrested when Spanish leader Francisco Franco visited Valencia. The incident had a lasting impact on Broseta, which made him value freedom and respect for others throughout the rest of his life. In 1955 he obtained his licentiate in Law from the Universidad Literaria de Valencia. He furthered his academic studies at the

Complutense University of Madrid The Complutense University of Madrid ( es, Universidad Complutense de Madrid; UCM, links=no, ''Universidad de Madrid'', ''Universidad Central de Madrid''; la, Universitas Complutensis Matritensis, links=no) is a public research university loc ...

, starting in 1956 and graduating in 1959. He was an assistant and later adjunct professor at the same university until 1964, when he became professor of business law at the

University of Valencia The University of Valencia ( ca-valencia, Universitat de València ; also known as UV) is a public research university located in the city of Valencia, Spain. It is one of the oldest surviving universities in Spain, and the oldest in the Vale ...

. He contributed to the creation of the Faculty of Economic Sciences at the university. He was

dean Dean may refer to: People * Dean (given name) * Dean (surname), a surname of Anglo-Saxon English origin * Dean (South Korean singer), a stage name for singer Kwon Hyuk * Dean Delannoit, a Belgian singer most known by the mononym Dean Titles * ...

of the Law faculty between 1970 and 1972. During this time he was prosecuted in the

Tribunal de Orden Público The ''Court of Public Order'' (Spanish: atribunal de Orden Público) was a court created in Francoist Spain to deal with most political crimes. It was instated as the supreme body in the newly created Public Order Jurisdiction, which also comprise ...

for writing an article, he was however absolved of the charge. He resigned as dean in 1972 after the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science intended to purge the Spanish academic life of three hundred professors and over a thousand students for political reasons, as they rose academically against

Francoist Spain Francoist Spain ( es, España franquista), or the Francoist dictatorship (), was the period of Spanish history between 1939 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death in 1975, Spai ...

. In 1973 he was the first signatory of a list requesting a Faculty of Valencian Culture and Language at the University of Valencia.

Political career

After the

1977 Spanish general election The 1977 Spanish general election was held on Wednesday, 15 June 1977, to elect the Spanish Cortes of the Kingdom of Spain. All 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies were up for election, as well as all 207 seats in the Senate. It was the first ...

Broseta became an advisor to the President of the Consell of the Valencian Region. Even though Broseta had been politically active he had not joined a party before 1979. He was however seen as close to the

Socialist Party of the Valencian Country The Socialist Party of the Valencian Country ( ca-valencia, Partit Socialista del País Valencià; es, Partido Socialista del País Valenciano, PSPV–PSOE) is a social-democratic political party in the Valencian Community, and is a regional branc ...

, and by their support became vice-president of the mixed commission for power transference to the pre-autonomic Valencian Community.Gascó Escudero, 113 Broseta however did not join the Socialist Party, instead becoming member of the Union of the Democratic Centre (UCD) in January 1979. He was a member of the Senate of Spain for the

Province of Valencia Valencia ( ca-valencia, València) is a province of Spain, in the central part of the autonomous Valencian Community. Of the province's over 2.5 million people (2018), one-third live in the capital, Valencia, which is also the capital of the au ...

between 1 March 1979 and 31 August 1982. In the Senate he served as president of the Commission of Education and Culture for almost two years between 1979 and 1981. At different times he also served in the Commission for Internal Affairs and Justice and the Commission for the Constitution. He also served on the special commission for University teaching problems and the investigatory commission for public order and terrorist acts. In June 1980 Broseta was offered the position of State Secretary for

. Initially unsure whether to accept, he held the position until 1982. Within the Valencian UCD he allied himself with Fernando Abril Martorell, who served in the

Congress of Deputies The Congress of Deputies ( es, link=no, Congreso de los Diputados, italic=unset) is the lower house of the Cortes Generales, Spain's legislative branch. The Congress meets in the Palace of the Parliament () in Madrid. It has 350 members elect ...

and José Luis Manglano de Mas, who served as a member of the municipal council of

. Together the three men supported the Valencian political cause. After the disintegration of the UCD in 1983 Broseta left politics. In September 1982 he had already made plans to leave the UCD as he felt it was no longer his party. He left at the same time as Manglano. As a politician Broseta was a supporter of

anti-Catalanism Anti-Catalanism ( ca, anticatalanisme, ) is the collective name given to various historical trends in France, Italy, and Spain that have been hostile to Catalan culture and traditions. Description In a historical context, anti-Catalanism expres ...

and as a Valencian of

Blaverism Blaverism ( ca-valencia, blaverisme, ) is a Spanish nationalist and Valencian regionalist ideology in the Valencian Community (Spain) that emerged with the Spanish transition to democracy characterised by strong anti-Catalanism, born out of its op ...

. He rejected the idea that the Valencian Community belonged to the

Països Catalans The Catalan Countries ( ca, països catalans, , ) refers to those territories where the Catalan language is spoken. They include the Spanish regions of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, Valencia, and parts of Aragon (''La Franja'') and Murcia ( ...

and he was a critic of Catalan leader

Jordi Pujol Jordi Pujol Soley (, born 9 June 1930) is a Catalan politician who was the leader of the party Convergència Democràtica de Catalunya (CDC) from 1974 to 2003, and President of the Generalitat de Catalunya from 1980 to 2003. Early life Pujol was ...

Later life

After his time in politics Broseta returned to Valencia and focused on his academic life once more. He was awarded a Cross of Honour of the Order of St. Raymond of Peñafort in 1985. In 1987 he was made Elected member of the

. On 26 March 1990 he was made Chevalier (Knight) in the French

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...

. In 1991 Broseta refused an offer to lead the party list of the Partido Popular (PP) in the municipal elections of Valencia. PP Senator José Miguel Ortí Bordás said that Broseta had also been approached to become the PP candidate for the elections of President of the

Generalitat Valenciana The Generalitat Valenciana is the generic name covering the different self-government institutions under which the Spanish autonomous community of Valencia is politically organized. It consists of seven institutions including the ''Corts Val ...

in 1995.

Death

On 15 February 1992 at 10:20 Broseta had just finished a class at the Faculty of Law of the University of Valencia and entered the gardens on the Avenida de Blasco Ibañez. He was on his way to the

Banco de Valencia The Bank of Valencia was the sixth bank in Spain, and had its headquarters in the city of Valencia, Valencia. It was founded on March 20, 1900, and its first president Jose Tartiere Lenegre. Ten years later, the bank already appeared in the Indus ...

, where he worked as an advisor, to attend a meeting. He was then approached by a man and woman who ordered a student walking behind Broseta to get down on the ground. Broseta was subsequently killed by a single shot to the neck fired from a handgun. The two attackers then fled the scene in a Volkswagen Polo which they abandoned at the intersection of the Avenida de Aragón and the Calle de Amadeo de Saboya, only 500 meters away from the site of the murder. Police attempted a controlled explosion of the car, fearing boobytraps. The car however exploded before they could do so, resulting in one police officer receiving minor injuries. Eyewitnesses reported that the attackers fled in another car and took the highway towards Barcelona. ETA claimed the attack.

Aftermath

The municipality of Valencia as well as the Generalitat Valenciana called for a minute of silence at 10:30 on the day after the incident. The Senate of Spain had earlier held a minute of silence. The municipality of Valencia later erected a column in Broseta's honor. The ''Profesor Manuel Broseta Foundation'' was founded on 16 July 1992, wishing to honor Broseta's memory. The foundation awards a Coexistence Prize every year. ETA commander José Luis Urrusolo Sistiaga, who was convicted to 449 years in prison for 16 murders, including the one on Broseta, was temporarily released in 2013. The release was criticized by Pablo Broseta, son of Manuel. José Luis Álvarez Santacristina was sentenced to thirty years imprisonment for the murder on Broseta. A couple of

members suspected of the crime were arrested in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico in February 2014, after being fugitives for 22 years. The prosecutor sought a prison sentence of 56 years against the couple. In March 2015 the Spanish Audienca Nacional found them not guilty.

Works

* ''Manual de derecho mercantil'' (1983)

References

Notes

Sources

* Gascó Escudero, Patricia. (2011)
''UCD-Valencia: Estrategias y grupos de poder político''
Universitat de València. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Broseta, Manuel 1932 births 1992 deaths People from Alcoià Complutense University of Madrid alumni Complutense University of Madrid Academic staff of the University of Valencia Union of the Democratic Centre (Spain) politicians Members of the 1st Senate of Spain Government ministers of Spain Assassinated Spanish politicians People killed by ETA (separatist group) Deaths by firearm in Spain Chevaliers of the Légion d'honneur