Never underestimate the ability of a European to make a Nazi reference when angry at a German.
There is a growing spat between the government of Spain and Air Berlin over the airline’s refusal to include Catalan as an official language on its flights to Mallorca. The local governments of the Balearic Islands (which include Mallorca, Ibiza, Formentera and Minorca) have asked Air Berlin Head Joachim Hunold to give Catalan — the minority language of Spain spoken in Catalonia and the Balearic Islands — equal billing with Spanish and German on its flights to the area.
Hunold is refusing, telling Germany’s Sueddeutsche Zeitung that such a concession represented a “step back to medieval times,” whatever that means.
What’s Spain’s response? Well nothing official, but a rogue politician named Joan Puig Cordon, a former MP from Catalonia, e-mailed Hunold and demanded he apologize for “offending the Catalan language.” Not getting very far with that, Cordon apparently fashioned a new logo for Air Berlin, complete with a swastika, gave the carrier a new name, “Air Goebbels,” and sent it to Hunold.
Mallorca is pretty much the favorite holiday spot for Germans, and Air Berlin represents the largest single carrier routinely serving the Balearic Islands, with hundreds of flights each week.
Not surprisingly, the German embassy in Madrid called Cordon’s move “unacceptable,” and Air Berlin’s Madrid office is contemplating legal action.