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URV

Josep Subirats i Piñana

Date of investiture:
23 February 2004
Sponsor:
Joana Zaragoza
Area of knowledge:
Economics and Politics

Born in Tortosa in 1920, Josep Subirats Piñana was a great political activist against Franco’s government. He headed the clandestine newspaper Ara during the dictatorship and years later he was one of the 20 people who drew up the Catalan Statute in Sau.

Along with Josep Antoni Baixeras and Xavier Amorós, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the Rovira i Virgili University on 23 February 2004, a date which coincided with the 25the anniversary of the Constitution and the anniversary of the attempted coup d’état in 1981. The Vice-Rector of the URV, Joana Zaragoza, sponsored all three and emphasized their roles in cultural resistance to Francoism.


Subirats joined the newspaper of Tortosa, El Poble, when he was only 14 years old, and was editor from 1937 to 1938. He was imprisoned during the war and served a seven year sentence. He was a lecturer in Business Fiscal Policy at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, a senator, a member of the Spanish National Audit Office and the European Court of Auditors, and on 30 January 2005 he was awarded the Catalan Cross of Saint George.