Deconstructing Spain (part 2)

El Mundo - Catalanofòbia

“Do you hate catalans?”. Guess in which european country it is OK to incite racism from mainstream media.

Spanish newspaper El Mundo (the second newspaper in Spain) asked its readers that question on 16th July, 2009. The exact question was “¿Se siente usted catalanófobo?” a direct translation would be “Are you catalanophobic?” or “Do you hate catalans?”. The original poll page can still be seen here.

The problem is twofold, first it is very serious that the mainstream Spanish media incites to racism and secondly and most worrying: nothing, absolutely nothing happened even though this is a crime and the spanish legal system should prosecute, according to its article 510, “…those who incite discrimination, hatred or violence against groups or associations for racist reasons…”.

In Spain insulting catalans on a daily basis from the media is a popular sport. It is a proven way to gain votes for the elections and audience for your radio or TV, the examples are countless. This happens so often that catalan newspaper Avui contains a section called “Good morning Madrid!” with a daily selection of insults to Catalans, Catalonia and Catalan institutions in general heard on Spanish radio stations.

Finally, the results. Out of 26648 people, 14981 (56%) answered yes.

6 thoughts to “Deconstructing Spain (part 2)”

  1. Espanya te les lleis en uns sola direcció , es a dir centrifuga , si un diari Català fes el mateix el silenci de les autoritats es transformaria en brams d´asa desbocada i em atacs de ben segur desmesurats lo millor de tot es que a cap diari Català li passa pel cap una desconsideració de aquestes proporcions

    1. Thanks David, I guess europeans are not fully aware of Spain’s true colors. I just wanted to shed a bit of light. Can you imagine the reactions in any serious european country to a similar poll about jews or homosexuals?

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