The Correllengua Agermanat is a relay race that will take place from April 19 to May 5. Volunteer runners will pass the torch between 8 in the morning and 8 in the evening over 1,500 kilometers during 19 stages and 16 days. The start will be in Prada de Conflent, at Pompeu Fabra's tomb, and the route will be initiated by the Mallorcan inventors of the Correllengua. Afterward, the flame will bifurcate towards Lleida and Girona and reunite in Tarragona.The logistics of the Correllengua have been complex, as permits are required that affect traffic on all types of roads, necessitating agreement among mossos, gendarmes, carabinieri, civil guards, and urban guards. Runners can sign up through the website and for segments, which are a maximum of 500 meters. So far, over 5,000 registrations have been received.The youth of the organizers is evident in their communication codes and their references. They have grown up through social media and also through face-to-face interaction, organizing up to 80 events in Catalan-speaking territories without significant institutional or media support. An example is the Correllengua song, Amb el cor, performed by about twenty bands and artists, including Els Catarres, Adrià Salas, Fades, Júlia Colom, La Gossa Sorda, La Fúmiga, Doctor Prats, la Dharma, and Franca Masu. "With a clog and a espadrille, we have done things comparable to people with resources," celebrates Guillem Lloret. "It's just that people want to do things," states Muñoz.In each town the flame passes through, a festive event will be held (a concert, a talk, a game, an activity), which each municipality is responsible for organizing and publicizing on social media. The Correllengua organizers will do so in the main capitals of the territories, where the flame will reach crowded squares. Among other events, La Gossa Sorda will perform in Picassent and Felanitx. In Barcelona, Auxili will perform. In Perpignan, USAP will carry the Flama, but in Barcelona, both Barça and Espanyol will also do so. In Lleida, Sexenni will perform and garrotins will be recited. In Tortosa, the Correllengua flame coincides with one of the Sant Jordi per la Llengua demonstrations. In Formentera, Júlia Colom will perform, and in Ibiza, they will perform the ball de pagès and a concert with Sopa de Cabra and Isidor Marí. And in L'Alguer, there will be a parade by the Tamborins de Sant Joan.
Correllengua United: 1,500 km, 10,000 volunteers and the great mobilization for the language in the Catalan Countries
Who is behind the race that will travel through Catalan-speaking territories, from April 19 to May 5, to claim the unity and promotion of the language
BarcelonaAs with epic adventures, it all started with a simple whatsapp: "I've had an idea," Pau Emili Muñoz wrote to four friends. He came from the activism of Joves de Mallorca per la Llengua and wanted to make it bigger. "We are tired of having to defend the language from the trenches, because we keep retreating a little. Taking the initiative is more exhausting but more rewarding. It's time to take a step forward," he argues.
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The idea was to link the Correllengua that had been born in Mallorca in 1995 with all of the Catalan Countries. "In Mallorca everyone had told us 'this is impossible' and afterwards it had been a success. With this idea everyone said 'it will go well'," he recalls. This is how a group of young people who did not come from the classic entities and who belonged to territories often considered "periphery" took the initiative. One year after that whatsapp, in October 2025 the first Correllengua Agermanat was announced, which from April 19 to May 5 will cover 1,500 kilometers of the Catalan Countries in nineteen stages, with thousands of volunteers passing the torch of the language and celebrating activities in each town and city.
An assembly-based organization
So that it would be independent and transversal, the condition was that everyone participate on an individual basis and each contribute their experience and network. The core is about a hundred young people aged 16 to 36, most of whom have experience in activism and political militancy, who have organized into commissions by tasks, territories, days, and locations. There are practically daily meetings. This Wednesday, a group was at Espai Mallorca in Barcelona, with computers open for volunteers from all territories. Guillem Lloret handles communication for the Principality and has a dozen WhatsApp groups that are on fire. This is how the assembly-based organization of Correllengua has been woven, which has already managed to mobilize 10,000 volunteers for the race days. It is a capillary and horizontal network, because each municipality has autonomy to welcome the arrival of Correllengua as it wishes. They do not feel strong enough to predict the number of participants and spectators they will mobilize, but there are already more than 5,000 runners registered.
The language entities and associations joined later, with growing enthusiasm as they saw the scale of the project, and now they already exceed 1,200 organizations (from castellers to the network of athenaeums, from Barça to Xarxa Vives). Even the town councils, the provincial councils, and the Generalitat have joined, and the Government has committed a subsidy to them that covers about 25% of the activity. "In the other territories, we have not had aid, but we have not had setbacks either," they admit. The financing has been done through donations and the sale of t-shirts for 10 euros, in addition to the free hours of technicians and experts that each involved entity has contributed.
The unity of language
The 1995 Mallorcan Correllengua was inspired by the 1992 Olympic flame and the Korrika in the Basque Country, a relay race to defend the Basque language in a playful, open, and participatory way. The spirit of the Correllengua soon jumped to the Valencian Country through Acció Cultural (ACPV) and to the Principality through the Coordinator of Associations for the Catalan Language (CAL), but it turned into isolated and static events. That is why when launching a new initiative, one of the great challenges has been to avoid confusion and prejudice. The Correllengua Agermanat is neither the other Correllenguas, nor is it related to the Canigó flame, nor is it an independence demonstration, nor is it linked to entities or political parties. The name Correllengua was kept because it was a success in the Islands and clearly defined the action. The surname Agermanat also had a literal meaning (the bond between siblings), even if it sounded a bit kumbaià, but it also referred to the revolt of the Germanies, the popular uprising of the artisan class of the 16th century that began in the kingdom of Valencia and spread throughout the Crown of Aragon.
"The Correllengua Agermanat is the most ambitious unified mobilization that has been undertaken in defense of the language," says Pol Molina. It arises from concern about the decline in the social use of Catalan and in the face of political attacks against the language. The only two conditions for participation are "to defend the unity of the language" and "not to support fascism," they explain. "We will not take any flag away from anyone," states Muñoz. The vindicatory manifesto that will be read in each municipality where the flame stops will defend linguistic rights and the promotion of the language.
Proactive, festive, optimistic
"We are tired of being on the defensive, the Correllengua is proactive. We want epic, to regain self-esteem, to go out into the street together with enthusiasm and hope, to go and win," states Anna Roselló. At the same time, they acknowledge that in Catalonia they found "people from the municipalities very fed up" with the demonstrations, and in the Balearic Islands and the Valencian Country, activism already has enough open fronts with anti-Catalan governments. They believe that the Correllengua has overcome these obstacles and will make history: "We have skimmed off the people," says Muñoz.
"The language has been linked to conflict, to politics, to ideology. We want to link the language to leisure and sport. To a friendly, fresh, positive, optimistic, and popular situation. Intergenerational and transversal: I hope someone from the PP comes to run," states Lloret. They have also taken care to reach the most diverse Catalan speakers, and the newest ones, one of their concerns. "We don't have the means and resources to create new speakers at the pace needed, the problem is not immigration, it's resources," points out Muñoz. "In Ibiza we are at a critical point, also due to a massive tourism model. We want to awaken linguistic awareness and reach more people," says Marga Torres. "The flame of the Correllengua, which directly draws the Catalan Countries, is the perfect symbol," trusts Rosell.