On January 15, 1992, when he was leaving teaching at the University of Valencia, professor Manuel Broseta was murdered by the terrorist group ETA. This Monday, coinciding with the anniversary of his death, the Professor Manuel Broseta Foundation presented its Coexistence Award to film director Iñaki Arteta for having “identified with the pain of the victims” at a time when taking a political position in the Basque Country was taking a brave decision.
The presentation of the award at the Palau de la Generalitat before the main authorities of the Valencian Community as well as the floral offering made at the monolith erected in his honor to Manuel Broseta on Blasco Ibáñez Avenue in València, where he was shot 22 years ago , have served to remember the figure of this Valencian politician and professor of Commercial Law.
During the solemn ceremony in the Saló de Corts, symbol of Valencian self-government, the president of the Generalitat, Carlos Mazón, highlighted that Valencians are “heirs” to that way of understanding the murdered leader’s policy; a policy “of consensus and generations, not of the situation, in which different political sensitivities could have a place as long as coexistence and respect were possible”, as well as a policy in which “not everything or anything goes”, and understands power “as an instrument and not as an end in itself.”
In this sense, he has thrown a dart at the way of acting of certain leaders (it is understood that the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez), and has lamented that “pure convenience grows at the expense of coexistence.” Thus, the head of the Consell has recalled that Professor Broseta worked for a framework of harmony and coexistence “from unity and autonomy, for freedom and social justice, with the sovereignty of Parliament and the guarantee of the Constitution, and with the guarantee of the rights and freedoms of all citizens and of each one.”
However, and unlike the more combative language used by the president of the Foundation, Vicente Garrido, Mazón has not sharpened his speech more aware of the institutional scenario and the public present, among them the former president of the Generalitat Ximo Puig.
The Valencian president has referred to Manuel Broseta as “the faithful reflection of a unique generation, capable of leading the transition, of making possible a model Constitution, which provided the best decades of stability, progress and development in the contemporary history of Spain”.
Before Mazón, the award-winning Iñaki Arteta took the floor and thanked him for the award. The director wanted to emphasize that he is not an outgoing person but rather he chose to be brave. “Anyone can choose it. Being brave may make you have problems, but it makes you happy. And that allows you to face problems better,” he commented.
However, Arteta has pointed out that there are those who think that “since there is no killing, the Basque Country is a quiet place.” However, he recalled that this weekend 20,000 people asked in the streets of Bilbao “for the release of the few prisoners who must remain. Everyone knows what ETA did and they don’t think it is bad. They are capable of being absolutely inhumane,” he lamented. A circumstance that he, he understands, highlights the need to “pass the torch of the memory of the victims to the next generation.”
