Barcelona's new language commissioner: "We must guarantee the linguistic rights of Catalan speakers."

BarcelonaIn the midst of the hangover from the linguistic controversy caused for a Catalanophobic work contracted by Barcelona City Council and by viral anti-Catalan speeches On social media, the mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, presented this Friday the new commissioner for the Use of Catalan in Barcelona, Journalist Marta Salicrú (Barcelona, 1980), until now director of Radio Primavera Sound.

Collboni emphasized that "it's a position that has never existed in Barcelona" and that it has the "responsibility of ensuring the social use of Catalan in Barcelona," which has been rapidly reduced. The mayor noted that this position arises from the budgetary agreement they signed with ERC in May and announced that Salicrú will be part of the municipal government—in fact, it will report directly to the mayor's office—but will also coordinate with ERC. The budget for this area will be 4 million euros during this term.

Collboni outlined two priorities: youth and digital content. "We want to implement a different, proactive language promotion policy, closely linked to culture and the creative and artistic expressions of young people. For the first time, a strategy will be deployed that prioritizes a specific segment that should help us protect and promote the country's own language. We must reach young people with a new language," said the mayor. That's why they considered "a different profile," he said, justifying the choice of Marta Salicrú, who specializes in the production and promotion of audiovisual content, especially podcasts.

Catalanophobic videos

"Catalan will grow if it is the shared language, regardless of our origins and ideological stance," the mayor stated, possibly referring to the recent linguistic controversies linked to the rejection of the language among some Latin American immigrants. When asked directly by ARA, Collboni stated: "We reject expressions of this type because they are offensive and because they are disrespectful to the society that welcomes you." He also added that the best way to defend the language is "positively, without distinctions, and to do so in areas where young people see Catalan as a natural way to have fun, create, and socialize."

Salicrú added that these are "unfortunate videos." "Catalan is part of Barcelona's identity. We must guarantee the linguistic rights of Catalan speakers in Barcelona, and we will not allow people who do not understand it and prevent us from exercising our rights in our own city," he stated. He also pointed out that the retail and restaurant sector is an area where action is needed. Just this Friday, a viral complaint from writer Pep Antoni Roig about a dispute in a bar in the city was added to the complaints of language rights violations.

A digital content factory (not a hub)

The most urgent objectives of the commissioner, which had already been politically agreed upon via plenary session, will be to create the Catalan Office, promote a factory of digital content in Catalan - not a hub: "We will restrict Anglicisms to when necessary," she said—and move forward with the implementation of the 68 measures for the promotion of Catalan approved last term.

The commissioner emphasized the role of the influencers and the use of Catalan that young people already make in the digital sphere and in urban culture: "From the commissioner's perspective, we want to contribute to giving them the means and visibility so that digital content is consumed in Catalan, generating more and more diverse people, who also have discourses that counteract xenophobic, patriarchal, and Catalanophobic ones." "We content creators have a tool. We have to use new tools; language policies cannot remain on the sidelines of what's happening in the world when there is a range of creators doing such good work," he stated.