Italian Restaurant Harassed For Not Speaking Catalan

OWNER of an Italian restaurant in Spain’s Barcelona harassed for not speaking Catalan

Michela, who owns Italian eatery The Marinella on Carrer del Clot in Barcelona, went to open her restaurant on Friday, December 11 and discovered “33. Speak Catalan or emigrate. In Catalonia in Catalan” scrawled on the wall in graffiti. 33 is a number associated with the Catalan national extreme right.

The owner told El Pais that the nightmare began on December 4 when a customer asked her to address him in Catalan. When she asked him to speak more slowly so she could understand him, Michela claims the man became irate. He then followed up with a series of Twitter posts about the encounter, and Michela says she has received a number of threatening calls.

Jaume Collboni, Deputy Mayor of Barcelona City Council, wrote a message on Twitter to show solidarity with her: “Filling premises with xenophobic graffiti like these can never be the way. All my support to the owner of the Marinella restaurant before the hate messages she is receiving”. David Cid, deputy of the Commons, claimed that the harassment of The Marinella is “fascism.”

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