Who is Xavier Antich, the future president of Òmnium?

“At your service, whatever it takes and whatever role I play.” Thus the philosopher replied Xavier Antich (La Seu d’Urgell, 1962) at the will of the board of Omnium Cultural to count on him after the imprisonment of Jordi Cuixart in 2017. He did not think about it, not even now when picking up Cuixart’s glove to command the entity. Then, as now, he agreed “with all his good will” and went to work directing the area of Civil and Political Rights, being the ideologue of some of its main initiatives since then, such as the campaign for the amnesty of all independentistas with legal cases linked to 1-O or the launch of the training school Guillem Agulló.

doctor in Philosophy, a professor at the University of Girona (UdG) and a writer, sources from the entity highlight Antich that his knowledge radiated to his colleagues. He was director of the Master’s Degree in Communication and Art Criticism at the UdG and director of the Independent Studies Program (PEI) at the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art, as well as co-director of the first edition of the Master’s Degree in Public Management at the Barcelona School of Public Administration. Catalonia (EAPC) and the UOC. His professional career also led him to be one of the visiting professors at Stanford University (California, United States) and at the Catholic University of Lisbon.

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As a writer, his work stands out ‘The face of the other. Philosophical walk through the work of Emmanuel Lévinas’ which earned him the Joan Fuster essay prize in 1992. His social militancy has always been linked to world of culture. Antich was part of the first Consell Nacional de les Arts i la Cultura de Catalunya, was a member of the team of the program “La hora del lector” (Channel 33); and co-directed the three seasons of the program “Con Philosophy” (TV-3). He has also been on the board of trustees of the Institut d’Humanitats de Barcelona and the Fundació Enciclopèdia Catalana.

His closest circle defines him as an “intellectual beast”, essentially precise and “brilliant” in his ideas, and with a very remarkable network of contacts. “He is very generous, he knows how to transmit knowledge and, above all, to listen”, they comment, and stress that he is a “consensus” person with a lot of guts to direct Òmnium Cultural in this new stage that will open from February 26 with the goodbye to Cuixart and his right hand, Marcel Mauri.