Almodovar faces court threat over “coup” jibe

18 March 2004

MADRID – Spain’s outgoing ruling party has threatened to sue Oscar-winning Spanish director Pedro Almodovar after he accused it of planning a “coup”,  it was reported Thursday.

El Pais newspaper reported the Popular Party (PP) was infuriated by the director’s allegation that it planned to postpone Sunday’s general election in a bid to maintain power.

The  PP said: “The party will bring a complaint before the appropriate courts.” 

Earlier, Almodovar told a press conference: “We were on the point (of having) a PP coup d’etat.”

The director referred to media claims that outgoing Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar had planned to postpone the election after demonstrations outside PP headquarters in Madrid Saturday.

Almodovar said he was pleased the PP was ousted from office and Spain was once again a “democratic” country.

“I am very happy to begin again a life in a united and free country where democracy has returned,” he said during a media presentation of his latest film Bad Education.

The BBC reported that 4,000 PP supporters rallied outside the party’s headquarters late Wednesday and denounced Almodovar’s film, which deals with sexual harassment in a religious school, as an attack on the Catholic Church.

“A personality of the Spanish culture cannot accuse, without proof, the Spanish government of having tried to make a coup d’etat,” said protester Alberto Abarca.

“We are not a dictatorship but a democracy.”

Subject: Spanish news