Former Spanish deputy prime minister Alfonso Guerra believes that the journalists at Catalan public broadcaster TV3 "have handed over their souls to the secessionist devil". Furthermore, he considers that the public TV network is "the true cancer of Catalonia."
In an interview with Madrid newspaper El Mundo, Guerra gave the view that the application of article 155, under which Mariano Rajoy's government imposed direct rule on Catalonia, was applied badly and with too many limitations, especially "in the area of regional television, which is the true cancer of Catalonia." The former number two in Felipe González's PSOE government in the 1980s points the finger at TV3's professionals: "I suppose they are journalists who have handed over their souls to the secessionist devil."
In the interview, Guerra also offered his opinion of the current politics of the PSOE and considers that the party "has changed in a way that is striking." He argues that the fundamental basis for this change has been the creation of primary elections, which the former Spanish deputy leader says he has always opposed. Guerra explains that "primary elections do not lead to a higher level of representativeness" and that "a lot of manipulation is possible". "The last straw is that now they want to carry out these votes online; manipulation is bound to happen", he asserts.
On the new Andalusian government led by the Popular Party and Ciudadanos, with support from the extremists Vox, Guerra believes that "the PP wants a cordon sanitaire to keep out the pro-independence Catalan and Basque parties and Podemos, but not against the extreme right."
Alfonso Guerra is also known in Catalonia as the author of one of the more infamous quotes in the period when Catalan political frustration with Madrid began to boil over into pro-independence sentiment. In 2006, when the Spanish congress was considering its response to Catalonia's new Statute of Autonomy, an attempt by Catalonia to redefine its status within the Spanish state, Guerra boasted of cutting Catalan demands down to size: "We have given the Statute a planing, like a carpenter would", he said.