The Valencian Courts host a day against Estellés and Fuster

ValenciaThe Valencian Courts will host this Friday an event organized by the Foundation for the Defense of the Spanish Nation (Denaes) and the parliamentary group of Vox —the party that presides over the autonomous chamber— which, under the title Valencian literature and Spanish tradition: from official Catalanism to silenced memory, seeks to denounce the supposed "instrumentalization of Valencian literature" carried out "by bipartisanship and nationalism". The conference will place the figures and work of the poet Vicent Andrés Estellés and the essayist Joan Fuster at the center of its target, whom they consider "central pillars of a literary and identity model" that would promote the implementation of a "process of cultural assimilation" and "symbolic colonization linked to Catalan nationalism".

The controversial conference will be moderated by the president of Denaes and advisor to the ultra group in the Courts, Iván Vélez, and will feature the presence of at least three Vox deputies, the Valencians José María Llanos —spokesperson in Parliament— and Miriam Turiel, and the Catalan Manuel Acosta. In addition, it will also be attended by the president of the anti-Catalanist and secessionist association Lo Rat Penat, José Vicente Navarro; the journalist from the ultra-conservative channel El Toro TV José Javier Esparza, and the lawyer and businessman Eduardo Vizcaíno, son of the writer Fernando Vizcaíno Casas.

According to the introductory text published by Danaes that can be read, the convening entities consider that authors such as Estellés and Fuster "have been legitimized as central through networks of prescription (university, school, awards, subsidies, media)", which have turned them into "paradigms of literary Catalanism" and have caused other authors in Spanish to be "scarcely studied". Thus, the organizers denounce that there is a supposed "silenced memory", because authors such as Fernando Vizcaíno Casas or Vicente Blasco Ibáñez —of whom it is difficult to say that he has been sidelined, given that he is possibly the most published Valencian author, in addition to being a great progressive figure of the early 20th century, far from the ultra-conservative positions of Vox and Denaes— would have been left out of the canon.

The controversial event has been harshly criticized by the PSPV, which has called on the President of the Courts and Vox leader María de los Llanos Massó to suspend the event "for being incompatible with the principles of institutional neutrality, respect for pluralism, and the dignity of the chamber". "It is absolutely improper to use the Valencian Courts to organize an event against fundamental figures of our culture. We are not talking about a cultural debate, we are talking about an ideological operation to generate division, and this is incompatible with the role that the Valencian Courts must have," they emphasized.