Outrage at Toni Soler for Trivializing the Assault on a Minor in Mataró

Toni Soler is co-founder and collaborator of the subsidized newspaper Ara, and head of the favored production company of Catalonia's public television. Public media and subsidized press in Catalonia have glossed over what happened in Mataró.

Last Wednesday a group of young foreigners surrounded and brutally beat a 13-year-old boy at the gates of a school. The minor had to be hospitalized with three broken ribs. The images of the assault were released on Saturday and sparked a wave of outrage among thousands of Catalans.

Hours later, graffiti appeared on the school's gates, calling for the deportation of the strikers. An understandable reaction, because it's not the first time it has happened and people are fed up. They are also fed up with the complicit silence of public and subsidized media.

Toni Soler himself has added fuel to the fire by trivializing the issue on his profile on the platform X. He commented on the graffiti that appeared on the school's gates. "The message is 'out of Catalonia, we saw it first'."

In other words, he labels as racists those who suffer daily insecurity in their neighborhoods and call for the deportation of foreign criminals. It is a reduction to the absurd of the problem. It very well explains the cynicism of the journalistic caste in Catalonia, which wants to lecture by observing the problem from a comfortable distance.

Avalanche of Criticism of Toni Soler

"I hope that if you have children, a group of savages never grabs them and beats them up like they did with this kid," says one of the comments. "Don't be mistaken," says another, "it's very scary to see so much aggression and lack of humanity in such young people." A user says that "people can't take any more of so much crime, incivility, squatting."

"Is this the only thing that comes to your mind? And the beaten boy?" they ask him. They describe it as "the most unfortunate words I've seen in a long time."

They accuse Toni Soler of empathizing with the strikers and blaming the victim. "The 13-year-old boy whose ribs were broken doesn't matter to you at all. What we're fed up with is the wokism of this country's public media," they reproach him.

"That you care more about the strikers than the victims says a lot about you," reads another comment. Ángel considers his message "disgusting and out of place." They suggest he "review the images," where it's seen that these immigrants "haven't come to integrate, but to bring crime and radicalism."