To the Editor of the Guardian
Dear Sir,
The smear campaign against ex-FCB chairman Joan Laporta
However much distaste Madrid-based reporter Giles Tremlett might feel for Catalan politics, I do think his attack on Joan Laporta, ex-FCB chairman, in the Nov 14 issue, was excessive. Indeed, it's significant that the article should quote from sources in which the smear campaign against Laporta (porno actress included!) is most enthusiastically fueled by Spanish extreme right-wing press (who is the editor of Marca after all?). Admittedly the list headed by Mr Laporta is transversal -left to right- as was the Lithuanian movement Sajoudis in 1990. But it is more than justified by the current need to rally round in defence of basic Catalan rights which last June were unilaterally supressed by Spanish courts making Catalan an unnecessary language, among many other undemocratic cutbacks. Likewise, the reference to "alleged irregularities" in dealings with an Uzbekistan club, under Laporta's presidency, is quite out of place since the case has been completely discarded by the courts. To describe Mr Laporta as "populist" and "separatist" smacks more of a crossbreed between a Madrid police report and the line upheld by the conservative Barcelona press (faithful as ever to Madrid interests) than it does of an article in the Guardian.
Antoni Strubell i Trueta, MA Oxon
British-born Candidate for Girona on the Laporta ticket.
⚡️ Thread with legal and historical arguments on "#Catalonia #selfdetermination” https://t.co/Z1lx1D1bdS
— Col·lectiu Emma (@CollectiuEmma) 15 de març de 2017