The future of Catalan is at stake in the entire linguistic sphere. In Catalonia, based on the data from the new Survey of Language Uses – it is already the habitual language of less than a third of the population – it is urgent to seek a broad political and social consensus to chart a path to recovery. It is necessary to remove the language from partisan struggle. The critical situation demands it. The situation can only be reversed by combining efforts from the administrations, citizens, civil entities, the educational world – where the Constitutional Court's ruling on the controversial 25% of Castilian in classrooms imposed by the TSJC could soon be issued –, companies and the media. It is time to work to create a climate favourable to its protection, promotion and use, especially among newcomers, making them find it useful and value it as a way of inserting themselves more easily into society. The National Pact for Language, which was already proposed in the previous legislature and is now being promoted by the Government, is a necessary tool.
In the Valencian Country, a survey has just been carried out among families with school-age children in which they were asked whether they wanted an education in Valencian or Castilian. The Valencian Generalitat, governed by the PP, intended to certify the low demand for Valencian and it backfired. However, Valencian has only just won. It is an important victory. Despite all the historical obstacles, and with renewed strength in recent times due to the emergence of Vox, Valencian maintains the citizen pulse, although with unequal presence in the territory. The result cannot be counted on to serve as a rectifier for the government, but it sets a precedent and a democratic argument in the defence of Valencian. As for the Islands, a similar attempt also failed: 78.5% of island families chose Catalan as the language of their children's school last summer, compared to 16% who opted for Castilian. The island's PP government's linguistic segregation plan ended in failure.
Outside the State, the schools of La Bressola in Northern Catalonia, which will be 50 years old next year, have managed, after launching an SOS due to their delicate financial situation due to the lack of support from the French administrations, to receive financial aid from Catalonia, both from civil society and from the Generalitat. In fact, this Friday President Isla is visiting them. Meanwhile, in Alguer, its mayor is promoting the introduction of Catalan into teaching next year, a possibility that opened up in 2018 with the Sardinian law on regional languages. In the Franja de Aragón, on the other hand, the autonomous government, in the hands of the PP and Vox, has resumed the offensive against Catalan.
Finally, in Europe, the important issue of the official status of Catalan is also at stake, something that if achieved will be a historic and collective victory that will reverberate throughout the linguistic sphere in the form of legal and budgetary support. We must continue working for the language on all these fronts and put language above partisan disputes.
