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'Spain's language laws are like paedophilia'

Alex Dunham
Alex Dunham - [email protected]
'Spain's language laws are like paedophilia'
Toni Cantó has become a notorious figure in Spanish politics thanks to his inflammatory tweets. Photo: YouTube

Former-actor-turned-politician Toni Cantó has put his foot in it by saying the ruling Popular Party’s stringent language laws should be illegal in the same way that paedophilia is.

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Cantó’s comments were published in an interview in Spain's culture magazine JotDown.

The member of Madrid's regional parliament for the centrist social liberal party UPyD spoke about Spanish people’s fundamental right to choose what language they study in in the wake of new legislation that makes Spanish in Catalan schools compulsory.

“In the same way as a pupil can choose whether they want to study science or humanities, I want to be able to choose if I study in Castilian Spanish or Valencian,” Cantó told Jotdown magazine.

The interviewer asked Cantó, originally from Valencia, if he thought he was right to call the Popular Party’s stance on introducing Spanish into the Catalan educational system “linguistic fascism”.

The former TV star responded by saying: “There are limits, they can’t curtail my freedom. In the same way as you can’t let paedophiles get away with what they do.”

Cantó, who is renowned for his political gaffes since he joined UPyD in 2008, quickly backtracked on what he’d just said.

“Well, maybe I should give another example. If I compare the language issue with these kinds of things, I’m fucked. Especially after the month I’ve just had.”

Cantó was referring to the backlash of comments he’d received in reference to tweets in which he stated that one in three gender violence deaths were those of men and that most accusations were false.

The popular actor of Spanish TV comedy 'Siete Vidas' also uploaded a video montage to his Twitter account in which a missile hit the headquarters of Valencian broadcasting corportation Radiotelevisión Valenciana.

Cantó was also quoted in JotDown magazine as saying: "My job responsibility is to be politically incorrect and not be a political sheep."

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