A centurion on the campaign trail

Being a pro-independence and political activist at 103 may not seem to be an easy matter. But Moisès Broggi, a surgeon and candidate in the slate for the Unitat per Barcelona (UxB) in the May 22 municipal elections in Catalonia, is not afraid to engage socially with the ideas that he has defended throughout his long life.

"In Catalonia, we would be better off as a separate country," Broggi declared bluntly in a recent telephone interview with this newspaper. "As a physician and a citizen, he is an outstanding role model," remarked Oriol Amorós, the campaign manager of the UxB Catalan separatist coalition.

Broggi, who was born in Barcelona in 1908, is thought to be the oldest candidate running in the upcoming elections. He was invited to join the ticket by Ignasi Planas, the fourth-listed candidate on the UxB slate who knew the surgeon when they both served in the Reagrupament party. "We were both members of the Democratic Convergence of Catalonia [part of the CiU nationalist bloc which rules the region], and we pulled out at the same time, believing that the direction the party was taking was not very decisive," explains Planas, who also chairs the Catalunya Estat Lliure association, which sponsored in 2009 the non-binding separatist referendum in Arenys de Munt, Barcelona.

"In Catalonia, we would be better off as a separate country"

In the Civil War he was chief surgeon for the International Brigades

"In addition to health matters, he has always been willing to lend his support to movements outside the 0party, and at assemblies and demonstrations," added Planas by telephone.

After graduating in 1931 from the College of Medicine at the University of Barcelona, Broggi took part in the Civil War as chief surgeon for the International Brigades. This earned him a lot of enemies. During the Franco regime, he was pushed out of his post as surgeon from Barcelona's Hospital Clínico.

Broggi is familiar with the nationalist movements across Europe. After the victory of the Scottish National Party (SNP) in May 5 regional parliament elections, The Financial Times wrote: "The possibility that Scotland will become an independent nation is now feasible." That same concept is in the mind of Broggi, the honorary president of Barcelona's Academy of Medicine [...] "You need to create smaller states where problems are resolved more easily, where our way of life is understood."

Awarded the Creu de Sant Jordi in 1981 and the gold medal by the city of Barcelona, Broggi describes Jordi Hereu, who is running for re-election for the Catalan Socialist Party (PSC), "as a good mayor." But he maintains that the region continues to get a raw fiscal deal with regard to the rest of Spain, despite the revised autonomy statute agreed with the Socialist central government in 2006: "Much more money leaves Catalonia than comes back in."

But the centenarian who is on the list for the new coalition is not only a politician, doctor and activist, but also a family man. In a 2008 interview with EL PAÍS his son Marc Antoni, also a surgeon who is now retired and chairman of the Bioethics Advisory Committee of Catalonia explained: "Our family is like a clan, we are hard working and cultivate relationships as our parents taught us."

"The family", he added, "has a pretty strong bond that has enabled us to find strength and refuge in the circumstances that life has brought us."