• Politics Vox, Citizens and PP demand the appearance of the Minister of Health in the Parliament for the interrogation of the Andalusian nurse
  • File The Generalitat did not act against health workers who viralized images about the 'procés', transplants or disguised

The Ombudsman already has on the table the case of the Andalusian nurse at the Vall d'Hebron Hospital in Barcelona who was singled out after publishing a video on the social network TikTok against the requirement to accredit the level of sufficiency of Catalan (C1) in the oppositions convened by the Generalitat.

Impulso Ciudadano has filed a complaint with the institution directed by Ángel Gabilondo in which it urges it to open an investigation to determine if the regional administration has violated "fundamental rights" in a case in which it warns "limitation to freedom of expression" and "discrimination based on political ideology".

The constitutionalist entity also considers that this episode "poses a threat to all citizens who disagree with the political approaches" of the Catalan Government. "The damage is widespread and goes beyond the specific case," says the letter addressed to the Ombudsman. "If the arbitrary action of the public power is tolerated and the violation of fundamental rights is consented, the foundations are being laid for a totalitarian regime," he warns.

The Generalitat opened a file on Begoña Suárez after the dissemination of the video recorded in her workplace in which she pronounced the phrase that quickly went viral: "To get rid of the fucking oppositions, we have to have the fucking C1 of Catalan". This was announced on March 2 by the Minister of Health, Manel Balcells, who censured the words of the Vall d'Hebron worker, whose temporary contract expired on the 31st of that month and was not renewed.

For Impulso Ciudadano, "the accusation of the nurse led to the proliferation of hate messages on social networks." In addition, the civil organization points out in its letter that, as admitted by the minister himself in later days, "the file and the non-renewal of the contract were linked not only to issues such as the use of the work gown to record the video, but also to the content of the statements. "

Alba Vergés in 2019

The association detects a clear comparative grievance with other similar facts: "Recording a video during working hours, in the spaces of the center and with the work uniform has not been subject to sanction and, even, of opening disciplinary proceedings when it had a content coinciding with the political approaches of the Government of the Generalitat". Specifically, Impulso Ciudadano recalls that even the deputy of Esquerra Republicana Alba Vergés, when she served as Minister of Health in 2019, disseminated on her Twitter account the protests against the trial of the procés in which she participated together with workers of the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona uniformed and, in some cases, "within the health center".

In its complaint, the entity also echoes the information published last week by EL MUNDO about the "reserved investigation" carried out by the Catalan Institute of Health. The letter states that the interrogation carried out on March 28 "confirms that not only was the content of the statements investigated, but that an attempt was made to get the other nurses who appear in the video to renege on the proposals of their colleague."

In addition to "a relevant breach of the fundamental rights protected by the Constitution", the association assures that rights included in the Workers' Statute and the Basic Statute of Public Employees have been violated, and frames this case in what the regional law of equal treatment and non-discrimination defines as "discriminatory harassment".

  • Generalitat of Catalonia
  • Twitter
  • THE WORLD
  • Angel Gabilondo
  • Tik Tok
  • Barcelona
  • Articles Gerard Melgar
  • CKD

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