The acting Ombudsman of Spain, Francisco Fernández Marugán, has made public an institutional declaration (Spanish Version) in which he demands that the Catalan authorities respect the principle of ideological neutrality that should govern any free, open, democratic and tolerant society.
Fernández Marugán recalls that “the principle of ideological neutrality proper to a pluralist society is incompatible with the presence in public buildings of symbols of an ideology.”
The Ombudsman is particularly concerned about the deterioration of coexistence in public spaces in Catalonia. Thus, it has condemned the aggressions suffered by a citizen who withdrew yellow ribbon in Barcelona and by a Telemadrid worker during a demonstration. In this regard, it is very important that the next State-Generalitat Security Board addresses the situation arising from the use and withdrawal of symbols of ideological content in public spaces.
The Institution has already begun to receive and process complaints about the use of ideological symbols in public buildings. Thus, at the beginning of August, the Ombudsman protected a citizen who complained about the installation of yellow ribbons on the facade of the Hospital of Santa Creu i Sant Pau in Barcelona.
On this matter, Fernández Marugán has addressed the Regional Minister of Health of the Generalitat of Catalonia, reminding her that “the freedom of expression of people in public facilities has a limit in the principle of ideological neutrality of public powers – which are not party politicians or entities of civil society- and it is based on the fact that the citizens who come to them (hospitals, police facilities, Treasury delegations and a long etcetera) have a plurality of positions on the most diverse issues, all of which must be respected without anyone being able to feel annoyed or alienated to the public institution in question, which belongs to all and for all.”
The deputy in the Congress Juan Carlos Girauta has also presented a brief in which he raises various questions related to the situation in Catalonia that is being analyzed in detail.
Download the Institutional Declaration (Spanish Version)
