Fictional Catalan town Sant Esteve de les Roures, popularised when it appeared in an official Civil Guard report on last year's Catalan referendum as if it were a real place, has reached the German press. The newspaper Die Tageszeitung (commonly called "taz", link in German) quotes reporting by Spanish newspaper El Mundo: "'Some of the most aggressive incidents took place in Sant Esteve de les Roures', reported the paper on 28th March. Among other things, they mentioned a motorcyclist who tried to run over an official and steal their service weapon," writes taz.
The newspaper shows surprise over a serious problem with the Civil Guard's investigation: "Sant Esteve de les Roures doesn't exist". It then relates how a parody Twitter account was created, which now has more than 30,000 followers. "No town of its size in Catalonia, indeed in the whole of Europe, has as much to offer as Sant Esteve de les Roures. More than 80 accounts of public and private institutions from the village are active on Twitter. Sant Esteve has a sprawling underground network whose red Line 2 points at Catalonia's path to independence," they report.
Taz also reports on the social media incident between the fictional town and Spain's real Civil Guard gendarmerie. "Meanwhile, the official Twitter account of the Civil Guard can no longer differentiate between truth and fiction. When the town hall uploaded a video showing border guards on the border with Morocco firing rubber bullets, the Civil Guard accused the local government of Sant Esteve of abuse of office on Twitter: "From an official account @st_esteveroures? ... Is this how you represent your citizens, by reporting fake shots?"
