The Està Passant program on TV3 has been involved in a controversy since last April 4 when a satire was made on the image of the Virgen del Rocío. The most staunch sectors cried out against the program to the point that the Spanish Foundation of Christian Lawyers has filed a complaint against the presenters of the program: Toni Soler and Jair Domínguez.
This Tuesday, the Catalan chain has defended that satire is a "symptom of democratic quality". TV3 sources have also explained to Europa Press that the channel "has made humor about everything and will continue to do so". They have added that they do not want to enter into "statements and counter-statements" for the gag, which has received criticism from the Andalusian Government, the Tarragona Episcopal Conference and the Federation of Andalusian Cultural Entities in Catalonia (Fecac), among others.
This same evening, in the Està Passant program itself, Toni Soler has not been left behind in his humour. "I doubt that you have had a worse Holy Week than mine," the presenter began by saying. Wanting to put the subject aside, he wanted to emphasize that it was time to ask for forgiveness, although not from him.
"To close the issue, we demand an apology from the politicians here and there, from the Spanish press for the repeated lies, from the Catalans themselves for worrying about the humor on TV3, from Telecinco, from Carlos Herrera and, above all, from Christian Lawyers. When we have received these apologies, it may be that we will accept them," he concluded.
It must be remembered that the satire joked about the sexual life of the virgin and her Andalusian accent, as well as ironizing that the virgin does not go out in procession during Holy Week, something that for them is "an attack against religious feelings carried out in a totally free" and, furthermore, at "a very important time for Catholics such as Holy Week". And, beyond the complaint against the presenters, the actress who pretended to be the Virgin has also been affected by a possible crime of derision. In today's program, Toni Soler himself has come out in his defense, saying that she did "a great role" and that she is "an excellent professional."
