Munté on the Prosecutor’s decision not to pursue the case: “Did anyone expect otherwise? I didn’t”.

BarcelonaOn Friday Neus Munté, the Catalan Minister for the Presidency and government spokesperson, slammed Spain’s Public Prosecutor for ruling out any foul play in the affair of the leaked tapes where Spain’s acting Home Secretary, Jorge Fernández Díaz, can be heard plotting with Daniel de Alfonso, who was Director of Catalonia’s Anti-Fraud Office at the time. “Did anyone expect otherwise? I didn’t”, Munté replied bluntly when she was asked during a media breakfast at the Fórum Europa Tribuna Catalunya.

Munté went on to criticise the fact that Fernández Díaz is still in office after everything that has transpired. The Catalan spokesperson said it was “outrageous” that “in the Spanish cabinet there are individuals with so little appreciation for democracy, such as Fernández Díaz”. “In a truly democratic country, he would have stepped down a long time ago”, she complained. Moreover, Munté said that attitudes such as the Spanish minister’s and decisions like the Proscutor’s “render the general public defenceless” and greatly augment people’s feelings of “political disenfranchisement”.

On different note —but still on the subject of Spanish politics—, Munté stated that “they do not seem afraid to go to the polls for a third time”, considering the state of the ongoing Madrid talks to elect a new president, and she deplored that fact that Spain cannot seem to find a way to form a stable government. “I wonder if anyone has considered how long Mariano Rajoy has been leading a caretaker government. It’s been months and nobody seems to mind. A caretaker government does not pass new legislation, cannot respond to or address the many issues that concern the public”, she stressed.

Likewise, Munté warned that a third election in Spain “would be very bad news to the eyes of everyone, including the EU”. Munté claimed that Europe “is bewildered” by the situation in Spain.