MOSCOW, September 15 (RIA Novosti) – A photo of Catalonian First Minister Arthur Mas with a death threat was posted on Twitter by the local Popular Party as a proposed punishment for holding a referendum on independence, the Spain Report states.
“If Artur Mas gets the ballot boxes out on November 9, which method appears more effective to make him see sense?” the tweet on Saturday night said, accompanied by a number photos of other punishment options, such as a pistol, a chainsaw and an AK assault rifle.
Masnou village’s Popular Party chairman Federico de las Heras apologized for the tweet, which was deleted from the party’s account. He also told the Spain Report on Sunday that the tweet was posted involuntarily.
The party blamed Hootsuite, a social media dashboard, for the accidental post. But the company said it had nothing to do with the provocative tweet.
“Hootsuite does not create or send content automatically, and has systems to prevent accidental sending. Hootsuite bears no responsibility for the content sent out by its users,” the company said in a Sunday tweet.
On September 19, right after the referendum in Scotland, the Catalan parliament will debate a regional consultation in order to try and make the November independence vote legal in the face of firm opposition of Madrid, where the national government is preparing an appeal to Spain's Constitutional Court to annul the Catalan referendum law.
