The Catalan government has made a formal judicial complaint against the Spanish leader of the opposition, Pablo Casado (Popular Party), who last week said that in Catalan schools, children who speak Spanish were refused permission to go to the toilet. Yesterday, the Catalan executive filed a complaint with the Supreme Court against the PP president for crimes of insult, slander and inciting hatred and violence.
This was announced by Catalan government spokesperson Patrícia Plaja at a press conference following this Tuesday's cabinet meeting. "There are red lines that cannot be crossed," said Plaja, asserting that Casado had lied and accused teachers of a whole series of crimes: crimes of hatred and inciting violence, discrimination against students based on their parents' professions, crimes against moral integrity and coercion of minors.
More court actions
The government's complaint followed that of a group of Catalan lawyers on Friday, who also announced that they would lay a complaint against Casado, while the Junts party had also followed suit on Saturday. The Supreme Court, which will hear the claims, will have to decide whether to accept the complaints of the Catalan government and the others. If it does, it would then have to ask the legistlature to lift the PP leader's parliamentary immunity from prosecution.
Last Friday, Casado said in A Coruña that "there are teachers with instructions not to let children go to the toilet because they speak Spanish", that "the children of National Police and Civil Guards are discriminated against in class and are told they can't be integrated" and that there are children who have been punished "by having stones put in their backpacks" for having spoken in Spanish in the school playground.
The PP leader's words came after a speech last Wednesday in the Congress of Deputies, when he hardened his attacks on the Spanish PM, Pedro Sánchez, accusing him of failing to act in the face of alleged threats to stone a child from the Catalan town of Canet de Mar because the child's parents had asked for a 25% Spanish language quota to be applied to the group's classes. In his speech, the senior parliamentarian also used the expression qué coño - roughly equivalent to "what the fuck":
"What the fuck has to happen in Spain for him to take any responsibility," he asked, referring to Sánchez.
In the main image, the leader of the PP, Pablo Casado, during a visit to Barcelona / Europa Press