Former vice-president of the Catalan National Assembly, Agustí Alcoberro, has this Monday announced that the dean's office of UAB's (Autonomous University of Barcelona) Economy and Business Faculty has banned an event in homage to Oriol Junqueras, held in pretrial detention in Estremera prison near Madrid for over five months. The event was to have been held this Wednesday in the faculty's Sala de Graus, a room used for a variety of formal events. This, however, has been vetoed by the dean's office, headed by professor Diego Prior Jiménez since 2015. In the end it will have to be held in an ordinary classroom in the Philosophy Faculty.
Some sort of homage by the university has been awaited for some time, since Oriol Junqueras is a professor there, like fellow prisoners Jordi Sànchez and Raül Romeva. The event is organised by other professors, colleagues of Junqueras. The speakers include the president of the Catalan National Assembly, Elisenda Paluzie, journalist Enric Calpena, doctor of Philosophy Enric Pujol and the historians Josep Maria Solé and Antoni Simón.
Alcoberro, in his tweet, criticised the attitude of the dean's office and said that "there are some who don't want an Autonomous University of Barcelona but a King Felipe's University".
L'acte d'homenatge de la UAB al professor Oriol Junqueras ha hagut de canviar d'emplaçament perquè ha estat prohibit pel deganat d'Economia i Empresa. N'hi ha que no volen una Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona sinó la Universidad Rey Felipe. #LlibertatPresosPolítics pic.twitter.com/UBPJfPBncL
— Agusti Alcoberro (@AgustiAlcoberro) 9 d’abril de 2018
"Political events" not allowed
University sources tell El Nacional that it is a "misunderstanding", attributing the decision to the centre's rules. They say that rooms like the Sala de Graus can only be used for institutional or academic events, not political ones.
They justify the last-minute change to them having originally believed that the homage was just to a professor, nothing more specific, which they allowed to go ahead. When they found out it was an event dedicated to the imprisoned vice-president, they decided it couldn't be held in the Sala de Graus and moved it to a normal room in the Philosophy Faculty.