PP (Popular Party) spokesperson in the European Parliament and EPP (European People's Party) group vice-chair, Esteban González Pons, has insulted Belgium's Interior minister, Jan Jambon, after the latter questioned the impartiality of the Spanish justice system and the persecution of the Catalan government. González Pons accused the minister of belonging to a "nationalist" party with an "accredited history of xenophobia". Jambon's party, N-VA (New Flemish Alliance), is currently the largest in the country's Chamber of Representatives.
According to González Pons, Jambon's party leans "against equality between people and also in rejection of immigrants, among other characteristics". "As such, it would be welcome for them to not give lessons to a democracy like Spain's, in which people's rights are respected, the law is followed and all the standards of a modern state are complied with," the spokesperson added.
Pons also insulted the leader of the Belgian opposition, Elio Di Rupo, who he called "ignorant". "Don't you know that your party, PSOE, supports the Spanish judges? Spain doesn't behave like that with Belgium," he tweeted today. PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) is in the same European parliamentary group as Di Rupo's PS (Socialist Party).
¿Cómo puedes ser tan ignorante @eliodirupo? ¿No sabes que tu partido @PSOE apoya a los jueces españoles? España no se porta así con Bélgica.
— González Pons (@gonzalezpons) 5 novembre 2017
Translation: How can you be so ignorant, Elio Di Rupo? Don't you know that your party, PSOE, supports the Spanish judges? Spain doesn't behave like that with Belgium.