Antoni Comín


Antoni «Toni» Comín i Oliveres is a philosopher and Spanish politician from Catalonia. He is a former Conseller of Health in the Catalan Government. He is currently member of the European Parliament for the pro-independence coalition Together for Yes.

Life and career

Comín's family has been involved in politics since the 19th century. His father, Alfonso Carlos Comín, was a member of Communist PSUC. However, his grandfather, Jesús Comín Sagüés, was a Carlist MP during the Second Spanish Republic and contributed to the victory of Francisco Franco in the Spanish Civil War. The ancestors of Jesús Comín had also been prominent figures in the Carlist movement.
Comín has a degree in philosophy and political sciences from the Autonomous University of Barcelona, is a professor of social sciences at ESADE, and member of the Foundation Alfonso Comín and of the Center for the Study of Christianity & Justice. He writes periodically for The Ciervo magazine, for El Mundo and participates in the morning radio talk-show program on RAC 1 “El perquè de tot plegat”.
He became a member of the PSC on June 13, 2011 and was elected to the Catalan Parliament in 2003 and 2006. On March 4, 2014, he announced that he would leave the party because they were not following their electoral platform. On December 11, 2013 he founded the association Socialisme, Catalunya i Llibertat.
He was elected to the Parliament of Catalonia in September, 2015 as part of the Together for Yes coalition as well as during the VII and VIII legislatures for the Socialists' Party of Catalonia. On 13 January 2016, the new president of the Catalan Government, Carles Puigdemont, appointed Comín Minister of Health. He was sworn in on 14 January.
In October 2017, he was removed from his position as a regional minister by the Government of Spain for having participated in the declaration of independence of Catalonia, deemed unconstitutional by the Spanish Constitutional Court. Comín remains in Belgium to avoid persecution by Spanish authorities.

Works