Type Cultural institution | Area served Catalonia | |
Motto Llengua, cultura, país
("Language, culture, country") Founded July 11, 1961 (1961-07-11) Founder Lluís Carulla, Joan Baptista Cendrós,
Fèlix Millet, Joan Vallvé, Pau Riera Location 276 pral. Diputació
08009 Barcelona | ||
Òmnium Cultural ([ˈɔmnium kuɫtuˈɾaɫ] ) is an association based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It was originally created in the 1960s to promote the Catalan language and spread Catalan culture.
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Over the years it has increased its political nature; as of 2012 it had evolved into a Catalan separatist movement demanding self-determination for Catalonia.
History
Òmnium Cultural was created on 11 July 1961 in the context of Francoist Spain when the institutional use of Catalan was forbidden. In 1963 the Francoist authorities closed down the association. Òmnium had to continue to exist as a clandestine association in 1963–1967. In 1967, after a long legal case before the Francoist courts, the association won its right to exist and was once again authorized.
In order to promote the Catalan culture within the many limits of Francoism, Òmnium was the main sponsor of creating various awards and literary contests for works published in Catalan, such as the Premi d'Honor de les Lletres Catalanes (1969). Then by the early 1970s it established the Nit de Santa Llúcia a festival of Catalan literature when three awards are granted: Premi Sant Jordi (novel), Premi Mercè Rodoreda (short story) and the Premi Carles Riba (poetry).
After the end of the Francoist dictatorship in 1975, Òmnium continued its work promoting Catalan language and culture. Once democracy was restored, Òmnium supported and defended Catalan self-government, especially since the Spanish Constitutional Court’s rejection of the new Estatut. One million people marched on July 10, 2010 in Barcelona calling for national self-determination in a 2010 Catalan autonomy protest organized by Òmnium.
Currently it is one of the main organisations pushing Catalan politicians to hold a Catalan self-determination referendum despite this being unconstitutional according to the Spanish constitution.
Structure and funding
Òmnium claims to have more than 38,000 members and 30 regional offices besides the headquarters in Barcelona. At the 2014 election open for all of the association's members, 3,400 votes were polled. As of July 2016 the association is headed by Jordi Cuixart.
During 2005–2012 the association received up to 13 million euros in different grants from the Catalan regional government (Generalitat). from which, 1.4 million were received in 2012 alone.
In 2013 the association announced that it had resigned from its public money grant. The same announcement was made in 2014. Currently it claims to be receiving less than 10% of its budget in public money, from the local or provincial administrations while the rest of its operation costs are own funds.
In 2009 the Generalitat officially named Omnium as a public interest body, thus automatically conferring a more favourable tax regime for the association.
Òmnium Cultural cooperates with other organizations that share similar goals in other Catalan-speaking territories: Acció Cultural del País Valencià (in the Valencian Community) and Obra Cultural Balear (in the Balearic Islands).
It was awarded the Creu de Sant Jordi by the Generalitat.
In November 2015 Òmnium was found responsible of unauthorized use and deficient custody of personal data for its activities, resulting in a 200,000 euros sanction imposed by the Spanish agency responsible for data protection.