NATIONAL
Insults or Freedom of Speech?
Debate in the Catalan chamber has been heating up in the past weeks, and testing the limits of norms and rules set out to ensure the freedom of speech but prohibit personal insult. Terms such as “racist”, “supremacist” and “Nazi” have tainted recent political speeches given in the Parliament, and Roger Torrent, the Speaker, made moves yesterday to end this escalation before it spirals out of control. Two weeks ago, in the last plenary session, an unfortunate remark by Quim Torra regarding Miquel Iceta resulted in Torrent calling parliamentary groups to a meeting, the unanimous agreement of which was to call an end to insults in Parliament. Sadly this pledge was not long-lived, as since then, the Chamber has heard Carles Puigdemont called a “traitor”, and the current government referred to as “dim-witted beasts in human form” by Ignació Martín Blanco of the Ciudadanos party.