Roberto Vaquero Sinks Ricard Ustrell: 'This Is a Disgrace. Stop the Demagoguery'

Ricard Ustrell's statements about the origin of criminals in Catalonia continue to spark discussion.

The host of Els Matins de Catalunya Ràdio defended the concealment of criminals' nationality to "avoid stigmatizing" certain groups. These words have provoked much criticism regarding the role of public and subsidized media in Catalonia.

The person who has spoken out strongly about the controversy is the president of the Workers' Front, Roberto Vaquero. He called the presenter's statements a "disgrace" and directly accused him of being a "demagogue."

The program director defended himself by saying "we can also say they are young, that they are lame, and that they are I don't know what, and we don't say it." This implies that the origin of the criminals is an irrelevant piece of information.

Vaquero responds to him in an extensive thread on X that "in Catalonia, 52% of prisoners are not young, nor lame, but foreigners." Therefore, the nationality data would indeed be relevant. He invites the Catalunya Ràdio host to "take a good look at the data" to avoid "making a fool of himself."

Additionally, Vaquero states that "in Spain, there are no youth gangs of blondes with blue eyes." He provides the data that in 2022, 80% of crimes in Barcelona "were committed by Maghrebi minors."

Against the 'Victim Narrative'

Ustrell also brought up the socioeconomic conditions of the criminals. An argument often used to justify the high presence of foreigners on the list of criminals. But easily refutable since, as Roberto Vaquero recalls, "there is no data linking poverty with the most serious crimes, which are the ones that have increased the most."

The leader of the Workers' Front believes that the cultural factor "is indeed decisive." He recalls that "91% of those convicted in Catalonia for rape in 2024 were foreigners." He adds that in this statistic "I don't see poor Spaniards."

Overall, Roberto Vaquero accuses Ricard Ustrell of resorting to "victimhood" to defend the official "narrative."

Questionable Journalistic Practices

The words have caused a great controversy because of who is saying them, one of the main hosts of Catalan public radio. The host is defending concealing information to serve specific interests.

Even experts who are not easily doubted are beginning to question the usefulness of resorting to these questionable journalistic practices. It is becoming evident that the protective measures and censorship in the media end up having the opposite effect to what is desired.