The leaking of the audio of a private conversation between former Catalan treasury secretary and current MP for Catalan Republican Left (ERC), Lluís Salvadó, and the mayor of Sant Carles de la Ràpita, Josep Caparrós, which is completely unacceptable due to its chauvinistic and xenophobic content, has caused a storm that goes well beyond the political sphere. It enters fully into the area of language that needs to be eradicated from all areas of society, starting with that of our political representatives, each and every one of them elected, whoever we personally may vote for. And, like it or not, due to the political roles of those involved in this case, the debate has to focus on the defence of wider values than just being a question of their individual responses.
Salvadó has apologised and stated that he considers the conversation completely inappropriate. Something which is, on the other hand, obvious, since the comments and jokes about Romanians, Brazilians, large breasts or the immigrant origin of president Puigdemont's wife are terrifying. That is his response and one can criticise it or not, but this only marks the perimeter in which the high ranking ERC official wanted to place his response at individual level. The true question is that the problem doesn't stop here, not even by a long shot, and the ball is now in the court of his political party, ERC, which has already let many hours go by without offering a suitable political reponse to the gravity of what was said. Salvadó's political importance does not exempt him from the need to resign urgently - either on his own initiative or because his party heads demand it. The mayor of Sant Carles de la Ràpita is in an identical situation.
And it has to be this way, not only because you can't preach one thing and do another, but also because the ERC electorate is also deeply ashamed that the party name has been dragged into the mud of male chauvinism and the most rancid contempt for women. The excuse, that this has been tactically leaked by those serving the Spanish state, allowing an old recording to come to light at the precise moment when it will be most damaging, shows how these things work and how certain information is obtained, but not even this can compensate for the statements made, or reduce the massive damage that Salvadó has inflicted on his own party. Stopping the bleeding is not only the moral and ethical duty of the ERC executive but, in the absence of party leader Oriol Junqueras, unjustly behind bars in Estremera prison on pre-trial detention since 2nd November last year, there is also a need to care for the party legacy. Even though in this case it affects the person who was the former second-in-command of the Catalan government's economic ministry.