The shameful boycott of Catalan by the PP and Vox

Let's not fool ourselves. Achieving official status for Catalan in the European Union is no easy task, as it is an issue that raises many concerns in other countries, and the decision must be made unanimously. The Spanish government, in order to fulfill the commitments signed with Junts, intends for the European Union's General Affairs Council to vote on the matter this Tuesday after a diplomatic offensive aimed at overcoming the reluctance of the most hesitant countries, such as the Baltic countries, where there is a significant Russian-speaking minority that could demand the same.

But in recent hours, it has become known that the Spanish government is not the only one making inroads with European foreign ministries in favor of Catalan, Basque, and Galician. The PP and Vox are also making inroads, but in the opposite direction, to convince the European leaders of their respective political families to oppose the measure. It's understandable that the PP isn't enthusiastic about the measure, but there's a long way to go from there to actually trying to derail it.

Furthermore, as Vox has revealed, the PP has asked the far right to contact the Hungarian Orbán and the Italian Meloni to thwart the initiative. In other words, the shame is twofold: for the boycott itself and for doing so through the extremists, thus acknowledging that they perhaps don't have as much influence or interlocutors in the European chancelleries. It's especially shocking that the person who publicly admitted to these maneuvers was the Catalan Santi Rodríguez, a theoretically moderate figure. And that the spearhead of the opposition to Catalan in the European Parliament is another Catalan, Dolors Montserrat. How must a Catalan speaker feel when they have to try to convince a European colleague that they should vote against the official status of their own language? Was this the assumed sensitivity toward the autonomous communities and the co-official languages of a Galician speaker like Alberto Núñez Feijóo? Where is the complicity with the Catalans that Feijóo tried to sell on his first trips to Barcelona?

With its counter-campaign, the PP is also facilitating the narrative of the Spanish government, which, should its proposal fail, can always blame the Spanish right and not its diplomatic strategy. The official status of Catalan is a reasonable request that affects a community of almost 10 million potential speakers. Furthermore, Catalan is a language that already has legal recognition in Spain, so it's about bringing to Europe what is already a reality in the institutions.

In any case, the game will be long, as demonstrated by the precedent of Irish Gaelic, which took fifteen years. Therefore, if the proposal fails this Tuesday or is withdrawn at the last minute, we will have to continue persisting until a politically opportune moment is found. However, the movements of the PP and Vox already suggest that official status, if achieved, will only be possible with a progressive government in Spain.