Some unsigned posters showing the image of the ERC candidate for Barcelona mayor, Ernest Maragall, and his brother Pasqual, former Catalan president, accompanied by the message “Alzheimer’s out of Barcelona”, have provoked a unanimous rejection of the Catalan political forces.
“Someone confuses politics and dirty play. The figure of Pasqual (everyone’s heritage and the best mayor) is above unworthy attacks. Alzheimer’s patients are infinitely more worthy than the perpetrators of the outrage. We will act accordingly,” he said on Twitter Ernest Maragall, in defense of his brother, who announced that he suffered from Alzheimer’s after leaving the presidency of the Generalitat in 2006.
The mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, has reported that this Thursday she ordered the removal of these posters from public roads first thing in the morning, as soon as the city council received the notice.
“All our rejection of this despicable campaign that promotes stigma towards people with Alzheimer’s and their families. We will not allow hate to dirty the political debate,” Colau declared through social networks.
Candidates and leaders of different political formations have also spoken out against the appearance of these anonymous posters outside three ERC headquarters in Barcelona.
One of those who has come forward has been the mayor of JxCat in the city, Xavier Trias: “An action loaded with indignity, which disgusts me. My condemnation and rejection of this unpresentable attack and all the solidarity with President Maragall and Ernest Maragall,” he wrote on Twitter.
The mayor of the PSC, Jaume Collboni, has also expressed his “strongest condemnation of a disgusting attack that says a lot about the moral turpitude of those who carry it out” and has positioned himself “side by side with the mayor Pasqual Maragall, Ernest Maragall and of all those affected by Alzheimer’s and their families”.
“All my solidarity with Pasqual and Ernest Maragall. In politics, not everything goes. This is despicable,” said the PP candidate for mayor of Barcelona, Daniel Sirera.
At the beginning of this Friday’s plenary session in the Parliament, the parliamentary spokesman for Ciudadanos, Nacho Martín Blanco, began his speech condemning these posters, which he has described as “absolutely execrable”, and has expressed solidarity with the Maragall despite ” disagree on fundamental issues” with the mayor of ERC.
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Martín Blanco’s intervention has been applauded by deputies from all parliamentary groups, from Vox to the ERC itself.
Next, in his turn to question Cs, the Minister of the Interior, Joan Ignasi Elena, has spoken, who has described as “disgusting” a poster that is “the fruit of hate”.
From Twitter, also the president of Valents and candidate for mayor of Barcelona, Eva Parera, has denounced the posters: “I don’t know who is responsible for this, but it is simply disgusting. All our support for Ernest Maragall and his family in the face of attacks inadmissible personal. Not everything goes in politics”.