The consequences of an incident in July, when Together for Catalonia (Junts) party vice-president Francesc de Dalmases allegedly reprimanded a Catalan public television journalist over the tone of a TV interview with Junts president Laura Borràs, continue to burn after the conclusions of the party's own inquiry into what happened were leaked to the press at the weekend. The report, made by the prestigious lawyer and member of the Junt's internal Council of Guarantees, Magda Oranich, found that Dalmases had showed an "incorrect" attitude towards the deputy director of the TV3 programme FAQS, Mònica Hernández, and as well, that the Junts deputy had "lost his temper in an exaggerated way". Following statements by Francesc de Dalmases questioning the content and form of the leaked report, Oranich has defended the findings and has also denounced that she received "pressure" from Laura Borràs on the report. Oranich clarified to Catalunya Ràdio this Monday morning that the leaked document is in fact the real document, although she did not leak it, and did not propose any punitive measures either. However, she regretted that the deputy focused on this instead of carrying out any self-criticism of his own behaviour.
"The events happened, and that's it"
Asked on Catalunya Ràdio about Dalmases' questioning of the report, Magda Oranich defended her work and said that "the events happened and that's it", as corroborated by other reports made on the same incident, produced by the programme itself and by the Catalan public broadcasting corporation, the CCMA. The lawyer reiterated that it was "obvious" that there was "inappropriate behaviour" on the part of the vice president of Junts. In this regard, and while the lawyer "understood that he did not like" the conclusion that the Junts MP had acted "incorrectly", she deeply regrets that he preferred to raise suspicions about who leaked the document instead of focussing on his own actions, which in her opinion indicates that he is still "out of the world". She also contradicted Dalmases and assured that the president of Junts, Laura Borràs, and the general secretary, Jordi Turull, had the report a week ago, and that early this Monday morning Borràs herself told Oranich that "she hadn't read it yet."
Pressured by Laura Borràs over report content
Magda Oranich, who was also interviewed this morning on RAC1, Catalunya Ràdio and TV3, remarked that she had received "unacceptable pressure" during her investigation "from a part of Junts" and "the circles around Dalmases". The lawyer added, about the "pressures" of Borràs to adjust the report, that they did not "agree" over one "specific conversation". Oranich added that the Junts president told her that "she never wanted to talk about it again". The report, to which ElNacional.cat has had access, concludes that the journalist Mònica Hernández felt "intimidated" by Dalmases over the questions that the FAQS programme had asked in its interview with the-then speaker of the Catalan Parliament.
Jordi Turull avoids defending Dalmases
For his part, the general secretary of Junts, Jordi Turull, has avoided commenting on the case against the vice-president of the party until it is dealt with by the executive. In an interview with the radio station Ser Catalunya, Turull regretted the leak of the report "very much". Days after the controversy over Dalmases's attitude broke out, Turull avoided explicitly defending the deputy spokesperson for the parliamentary group: "He has the support of Junts to clarify the facts". The former minister emphasized that "you can disagree about many things, but respect must always be part of the behaviour of public representatives". Dalmases himself requested, on July 20th, that the Junts executive open an information inqurity to "clarify and be able to refute and defend themselves" from "accusations" bieng made in the news media and social media.
Below, Magda Oranichs' report to the Junts executive, in its original Catalan.