The former president of the Popular Party Pablo Casado will testify today (12 noon) as being investigated for an alleged crime of insults over the use of Catalan in schools. The former leader of the PP will appear before the Investigating Court 29 of Barcelona for having affirmed that the Catalan teachers had instructions not to let children who speak Spanish go to the bathroom.
Finally, the declaration will be produced this Monday by videoconference from Madrid, after having to postpone it due to the impossibility of the court to summon the former leader of the PP. At first, his statement was set for January 30, but it was postponed because the summons was sent to the headquarters of the Popular Party, where Casado no longer had an office.
This investigation arose from a complaint filed by the Generalitat de Catalunya for libel, slander and a hate crime, after Casado's statements at a party event in Galicia on December 17, 2021. Subsequently, the complaint was admitted for processing. by magistrate Santiago García García, as reported by the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC). At the same time, the magistrate has also requested the Popular Party to provide the complete recording of the press conference in which its then president made the statements that are the subject of these proceedings.
Casado made these statements in an act held in A Coruña after the sentence that forced 25% of the classes to be taught in Spanish. The former popular leader denounced that there were "teachers with instructions not to let children go to the bathroom if they speak Spanish". In addition, he expressed a series of questions to censor what, in his opinion, happens in schools in Catalonia: "Can Can it be tolerated that a 5-year-old child is asked to throw stones in order to isolate a child in class? Can it be tolerated that there are children who, because they speak Spanish at recess, throw stones into their backpacks? Can it be tolerated that children of the Civil Guard and the National Police are pointed out in class and said that these children cannot be integrated?
After learning of his words, the Generalitat, chaired by Pere Aragonés, filed a complaint with the Supreme Court, as he was a registered person. After losing the status of deputy, the Supreme Court archived it and the Catalan Executive then filed another complaint before an ordinary court in Barcelona. The Government of Aragonés understands that what Casado said is "absolutely false" and has the sole objective of "attacking" the Catalan educational system.
