Sindic de Greuges - Ombudsman in Catalonia
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The Ombudsman in Catalonia. Javier Marías discussed the figure in an article in El Pais (23/01/08) entitled Yearning of the Just
…I found that 13 of the 17 regions in Spain have a regional Ombudsman, as well as the national one. My region, Madrid, is not one of these. Perhaps because the regional parliament, dominated by Esperanza Aguirre and her sinister friends in the Popular Party (PP) and the right-wing media, does not want to want to have an Ombudsman who might inconveniently raise his voice about some of the things they do. In the roundtable talk I attended, they asked us to reflect on the office of Ombudsman, and to talk about our perception of the people who held it. The thing, it seems, varies from one region to another. In Catalonia the Sindic is a highly visible person, who often appears on television, calling on people to come to him and his team when they feel neglected or maltreated by the public administrations. In other places the Ombudsman is almost unknown and distrusted. This is also the case, I am sorry to say, with the national Ombudsman. El Pais
Nationally, the Ombudsman is known as the Defensor del Pueblo
