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The controversy started earlier this month on the program El Intermedio on La Sexta when comedian Dani Mateo did a sketch on the daily satirical program following princess Leonor's first official speech. During his parody version (reading the instructions for a flu medicine instead of the Constitution), he pretended to sneeze and then wipe his nose on the closest thing to hand: the Spanish flag next to his podium.

The sketch sparked immediate outrage in some sectors of Spanish print and social media, and both Mateo and El Gran Wyoming, the program's presenter, apologised for the joke. There were also those, however, who supported Mateo. For example, Catalan satirical program Polònia started their show that week as follows: 

Now, a judge in Madrid has summonsed him to court, under investigation for insulting the flag. Madrid's court of instruction number 37 has accepted to consider a lawsuit filed by ASP, a police union, and called him to testify next Monday, 26th November.

As part of the controversy, the comedian was already the focus of a protest involving some seventy people outside Ciudad Real's Quijano theatre. Meanwhile, Valencia's Olympia theatre cancelled a performance of Mateo's latest show scheduled for this week in light of the threats they've received. The date has been reprogrammed for early next year at a different venue in the city.