Basté explodes against Margallo for having accused Catalan media of raising "wall of silence"

BarcelonaJosé Manuel García Margallo, Spain’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, said on Friday in an interview on Spain’s national public radio, that Catalan media had raised "a wall of silence" to block representatives of the Spanish government from defending their political positions in Catalonia. "When you see an opening, you have to take advantage of it; as difficult as that might be", said the minister, in reference to his participation in the face-to-face with Oriol Junqueras hosted by 8TV just days before the 27-September election in Catalonia.

These words outraged Jordi Basté, host of El món a RAC1 (“The world on RAC1”, the leading morning radio show in Catalonia), who on Friday exploded against Margallo, accusing him of "lying". "How can you have the stones to say "wall of silence"? Every Catalan news outlet wanted to interview you so you could come here to explain yourselves. You have to have a lot of nerve to say that!", exclaimed Basté, adding: "The 'wall of silence' was raised by you, who refused to talk!”

Then Basté gave evidence that his program had repeatedly invited the minister to the show, which the ministry turned down for various reasons. The presenter read some of the e-mail messages that his staff had exchanged with Margallo's press office since April 2013. "On this occasion it will be impossible for him to attend", "he travels very often and in the little time that he spends in the ministry he has very few openings in his schedule", "we'll wait until after the summit", and "we'll keep you in mind" were some of the responses that the program received to their requests.

According to Basté, his team “just gave up" this past November, following yet another negative after two and a half years of trying, during which, he said, they fruitlessly sent "25 e-mail messages" to the ministry, as well as telephone calls. The Catalan journalist finally exclaimed: "Margallo, who the hell raised the wall of silence?"