Casado says Catalan schools do not allow children who speak Spanish to go to the toilet

Madrid"Can it be tolerated that there are teachers with instructions not to let children go to the bathroom because they speak Spanish?". The leader of the PP, Pablo Casado, continues to be immersed in a spiral of exaggeration about the situation of Catalan schools as a result of the Canet case. The right is using the first family that demanded their child receive 25% of their schooling in Spanish to attack the linguistic immersion model it has long had in its sights. This Friday, Casado decided to explain alleged situations that happen in Catalan schools where, according to him, there are teachers who do not let children who speak in Spanish go to the bathroom and who put stones in the backpacks of children who use this language: "Can we tolerate that children who speak Castilian in the break have stones put stones in their backpacks?"

He has not detailed, however, how, where and when these scenes allegedly happened, but has continued his speech, delivered from Galicia, falling back on previous claims: "Can you tolerate that the children of the Guardia Civil and the National Police are singled out in the classroom and that people say these children cannot integrate?" Casado was referring to the case against nine teachers at the IES El Palau in Sant Andreu de la Barca who were reported for "humiliating" children of these two police forces the day after the 2017 referendum. The cause, however, was dismissed by Martorell's Court of instruction number 7. Casado has denounced, also, the calls to "stone" and "isolate" the child of the Canet case. The leader of the oppoistion holds the Spanish president, Pedro Sánchez, responsible for everything, accusing him of failing to protect families who ask to be educated in Spanish, with the complicity of the pro-independence parties.

"Not everything goes in politics"

The Spanish government has not wanted to assess in detail Casado's words, but has reproached him for politicising the Canet case. "Although Mr. Casado believes that everything goes in politics and everything adds up, it is not so," the Spanish government spokeswoman, Isabel Rodríguez, criticised at a press conference after the cabinet meeting. "The opposition that Casado is carrying out subtracts from the democratic quality of our institutions," she added. Rodríguez has taken the opportunity to ask for "calm" in the face of the Spanish right's tension.

The government spokeswoman also defended multilingualism in the state and recalled that schools are "spaces of coexistence". "We cannot use the linguistic richness of our country to divide, but it is an element of union and pride," she said. However, in the Spanish government's balancing act to defend Catalonia's model of linguistic immersion and at the same time fulfil the sentence requiring 25% of classes in Spanish, Rodríguez has taken advantage of the press conference to ask that the verdict of the High Court is fulfilled. She referred to the measure announced this Thursday by the Generalitat of having two teachers in classrooms where parents have demanded education in Spanish, and welcomed it "if it is to comply with sentences".