Government PR man quits over outburst at Catalans

In the outburst on Friday, Juan Carlos Gafo Acevedo, deputy to the High Commissioner for Brand Spain, tweeted: “F*** ing Catalans, they don’t deserve anything.”

Mr Gafo posted the abusive message after Catalan nationalists booed the Spanish national anthem during the opening ceremony of the World Swimming Championships in Barcelona.
By Saturday afternoon the 50year- old, who is a former ambassador to Lebanon, was attempting to backtrack on his comments in a series of follow-up tweets.
In reply to another Twitter user about his earlier posting, Mr Gafo wrote: “Total respect, but you gotta understand the anger when a world championship is inaugurated… I would never boo the Catalan anthem.”
He then added: “All I mean to say is that the anthem deserves respect. I would never boo the Catalan anthem; I was not referring to all Catalans, whom I fully respect.”
And in third and final contrite message he announced: “To all: I stand corrected. I got mad at hearing the Spanish anthem booed. That’s all. I have nothing against Catalonia or Catalans.”
But the damage had already been done despite Mr Gafo only having 40 Twitter followers, a retweet of his Catalan attack had made its way to the Foreign Ministry, which oversees Brand Spain.
After confirming the comments had been made, Foreign minister José Manuel Garcia-Margallo demanded Mr Gafo’s resignation.

Mr Garcia- Margallo said the offending tweet was “intolerable and incompatible with the spirit of Brand Spain”.