Josep Sunyol i Garriga (21 July 1898,

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

– 6 August 1936,

Sierra de Guadarrama The Sierra de Guadarrama (Guadarrama Mountains) is a mountain range forming the main eastern section of the Sistema Central, the system of mountain ranges along the centre of the Iberian Peninsula. It is in Spain, between the systems Sierra de ...

) was a Catalan lawyer, journalist and politician from

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. He was president of

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly known as FC Barcelona and colloquially as Barça (), is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of ...

, a prominent politician for the Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC), and ERC deputy in the Congress of Deputies in 1931, 1933 and 1936.

Life

Sunyol came from both a wealthy family and a long line of Catalan political militants. He was a member of ''

Acció Catalana Catalan Action (, AC) was a Centre-left politics, centre-left Centre-left politics, Catalanist political movement active in Catalonia during the early 20th century. History AC was created in 1922 around the Catalan National Conference, which brou ...

'', a

left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social ...

group and

Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya The Republican Left of Catalonia (, ERC; ; generically branded as ) is a pro-Catalan independence, social democratic political party in the Spanish autonomous community of Catalonia, with a presence also in Valencia, the Balearic Islands and th ...

. In 1928 he became a director of FC Barcelona and in 1930 he founded the

newspaper ''La Rambla'', which opposed the

Primo de Rivera Primo de Rivera is a Spanish family prominent in politics of the 19th and 20th centuries: *Fernando Primo de Rivera (1831–1921), Spanish politician and soldier *Miguel Primo de Rivera (1870–1930), nephew of Fernando, military officer and dictat ...

regime. In 1931 he was elected to the

Cortes Cortes, Cortés, Cortês, Corts, or Cortès may refer to: People * Cortes (surname), including a list of people with the name ** Hernán Cortés (1485–1547), a Spanish conquistador Places * Cortes, Navarre, a village in the South border of ...

as an ERC deputy. He was subsequently re-elected in 1933 and 1936. He served as president of both the ''Reial Automòbil Club de Catalunya'' and the

Federació Catalana de Futbol The Catalan Football Federation (, ; FCF) is the football association responsible for administering football in Catalonia. It was formed on 11 November 1900 as the Football Associació de Catalunya (). It was the first football association found ...

. In 1935 he was elected president of FC Barcelona.

Assassination

On 6 August 1936, during the early days of the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

, Sunyol was arrested by

Francoist Francoist Spain (), also known as the Francoist dictatorship (), or Nationalist Spain () was the period of Spanish history between 1936 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death i ...

troops in the Sierra de Guadarrama and was then murdered by one of Franco's soldiers.Asesinan al presidente del FC Barcelona, Josep Sunyol i Garriga
ElNacional.Cat His body was only exhumed in the 1990s, following a campaign by ''Els Amics de Josep Sunyol'' (The Friends of Josep Sunyol) for FC Barcelona to commemorate the 60th anniversary of his death in 1996. A memorial stone to Sunyol was placed in a park nearby the location he was killed, and Sunyol is now described as 'the Martyr President' by FC Barcelona.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sunyol, Josep 1898 births 1936 deaths Politicians from Barcelona Republican Left of Catalonia politicians Members of the Congress of Deputies of the Second Spanish Republic Lawyers from Barcelona FC Barcelona presidents Spanish people of the Spanish Civil War (Republican faction)