No rectification. The former leader of Spain's opposition People's Party (PP), Pablo Casado, has affirmed to a judge in Barcelona that he "did not personally check" the truth of assertions he made about Catalan schools when speaking at a PP political event in Galicia in December 2021, according to judicial sources. Specifically, the then-president of the PP affirmed that "they don't let children go to the toilet if they don't ask in Catalan" and that "stones are put in their backpacks for speaking Spanish". This Monday, despite being a public holiday in the Spanish capital, Casado had to go to a court in Madrid to testify as a person under investigation, by videoconference connection with the judge of Barcelona court number 29. In his testimony, he claimed his parliamentary inviolability for his words and affirmed that his statements were "protecting the family of Canet de Mar", in reference to the family who sought a 25% Spanish language quota in their daughter's class, who in Casado's opinion were persecuted for this. The ex-PP leader also said that he criticized "the Catalan government, ERC and Junts" for promoting a new education law, and assured that: "I would do it again", a reference to the expression that Catalan pro-independence activist Jordi Cuixart stated in the leaders' trial for the 2017 referendum.
Pablo Casado in Galicia: "Can it be tolerated that they are asked to throw stones at a five year old child and isolate them in class? That there are teachers with instructions not to let children go to the toilet because they speak Spanish?"
The statement, made by video conference from Madrid to Barcelona, lasted almost an hour and Pablo Casado only answered the questions of the judge Santiago García and his own lawyer. The judge did not accept the appeal made by the former PP leader, who asked for the case to be closed based on the assertion that his words were not a crime, that he was protected by freedom of expression and that he was stating "confirmed information".
In the appeal, Casado also stated that he did not want to testify because he plans to present an appeal to the Barcelona Audience, where he will also question the legitimacy of the Catalan government, which accuses him of a hate crime targeting Catalan schools, in addition to offences of slander and insults. And he asked that the public prosecution against him, carried out by Josep Rosell, on behalf of the Independent Lawyers Team, pay 5,000 euros in bail.
The judge rejected his appeal last Thursday, and this Monday asked the politician whether or not he had checked the information that he stated. Casado then apologized, although he affirmed that he had read the information in the Spanish press and that since the Catalan government had not complained against the media, he took it to be correct, according to judicial sources. The truth is that there is no evidence that any newspaper has published the claim that stones were thrown at children, a very old lie that once circulated about Basque schools, and there was one instance of a monitor who told children they were to speak in Catalan. Casado later clarified that the information he gave at the PP event "was verified" by the family in Canet de Mar, police associations and the media.
The prosecutor not there
Casado's case has been dragging on for months. First, issues of competence between Galician and Barcelona courts were discussed. And then, when the PP itself received the summons at its headquarters in Madrid, it told the court that it did not know where Casado was. The head of the Barcelona court number 29 had to suspend the declaration of the former PP president last January, and thus he was summoned again this Monday. When he amde his statement, no representative of the public prosecution service was present.