The PSC brought to debate this Thursday a motion in the Parliament in which they condemn the Islamophobic and xenophobic chants that occurred in the Spain-Egypt match on March 31 at the RCDE Stadium. One of the regrettable messages heard was “muslim whoever doesn’t jump,” a chant that Vox has defended from the Catalan Chamber’s podium. The ultra party deputy, Alberto Tarradas, asked “what is wrong with this phrase that comes from the spontaneity and joy of the people.” And he did not stop there. Tarradas pronounced this expression and added that he did not jump to “maintain a certain decorum,” but that his entire group “jumps.”
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These words caused an uproar among the deputies present in the hemicycle, but the incident went further when the Vox parliamentarian mentioned and pointed to the Esquerra Republicana deputy, Najat Driouech, born in Morocco and arrived in Catalonia at 9 years old: “If upon hearing it she decides not to jump, then it’s okay, she doesn’t have to jump,” to which he added “we are not going to deport her for that, at least for now.”
The ERC bench warned the Board that “all limits were being crossed” and the second vice president of the Parliament, David Pérez (PSC), who was presiding over the Chamber at that moment, intervened to remind Tarradas of article 7 of the code of conduct. This provision urges deputies to “maintain at all times respectful conduct towards other deputies and citizens, and a scrupulous and exemplary attitude in accordance with the principle of equality without discrimination based on gender, sexual orientation, beliefs, ideology, origin or social condition, ethnicity, language or any other.”
After this warning, Tarradas pointed out that “the lady deputy can be calm” and that “no one will say absolutely anything to her.” At the time it happened, Driouech was not in the plenary. The Vox deputy insisted on defending the chant “muslim whoever doesn’t jump” in his speech because “it is normal that sympathy declines among the natives” towards Muslims because “they feel besieged by the Islamic invasion,” which has led to the “degradation of neighborhoods and an increase in crime.” “A thousand times yes, Christian Spain and never Muslim,” he concluded.
After this intervention, the president of the Parliament, Josep Rull, criticized these “offensive generalizations” and expressed: “I hope that none of you ever have to migrate from this country, that wherever you go you never make these speeches and are treated as ignominiously as you treat those who have come here.”
For her part, the deputy spokesperson of ERC, Ana Balsera, asked for the floor to condemn the “direct attack” on her fellow party member: “It is not the first time he has done it, he has not withdrawn his words.” Rull announced that they will address what happened in a Board meeting and will refer it to the Deputy Statute Commission, where cases potentially infringing the code of conduct are studied: “All present are legitimate representatives of the people of Catalonia and no one can be singled out for their uniqueness.”
In the afternoon session, the Vox deputy, Alberto Tarradas, asked to intervene to rectify and apologize: “I have made irony about the situation of a deputy and I think personalizing was a mistake. If my statement has offended, has lacked the decorum of this chamber, I want to apologize from here.” After that, Rull asked him if with that he meant to withdraw from the minutes the threats made, to which Tarradas nodded.
Subsequently, Najat Driouech herself intervened to make a call for “reflection”: “We come here to contrast ideas, policies and not to personalize the attack against any colleague. I only ask all colleagues to respect this principle and not to do what happened this morning.”
Illa calls the speech “indecent” and Junqueras replies to Vox that “people like you are judged in Nuremberg”
The president of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, wanted to join the condemnation of what happened through a message on X: “This is an indecent example of Vox’s hate speech. No person will be expelled from this country. No one will lose their rights. We will not accept threats. Not in Catalonia.” The head of the Catalan Executive defended “coexistence, dignity, and equality of rights firmly and without fear.”
The leader of Esquerra Republicana, Oriol Junqueras, also spoke, addressing Alberto Tarradas directly: “People like you are judged in Nuremberg. The threats of the racist far right will not make us silent nor make us back down.” The republican leader defended that “Catalonia is a country of rights, freedoms, and coexistence,” so “against those who want to sow hatred and fear,” the response is “democracy, firmness, and dignity.”
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