The Valencian School, strangled by the Mazón government and awarded by the Institute of Catalan Studies

Barcelona"We are resilient and rebellious," declared the president of the Escola Valenciana (EV), professor and activist Alexandra Usó, on Tuesday. The organization celebrates forty years since its founding in defense of Catalan in 2025 by receiving the 67th Prat de la Riba Award from the Institute of Catalan Studies (IEC) for its "determined and constant attitude in defense of the unity of the language and for its work in favor of linguistic normalization in the Valencian Country." The award ceremony will take place on Wednesday, Sant Jordi.

"The award gives us a push to continue. We still have a lot of life left," stated Usó. This resilience is indisputable, given the anti-Catalan right-wing governments and the balancing left-wing governments that have followed one another. "In the Valencian Community, we've had a tough time since the Battle of Almansa," emphasized the president of EV, an assembly-based organization made up of volunteer activists. Despite the stranglehold imposed on the institution by the government of Carlos Mazón, which has forced them to reduce their staff from 21 to 7, limited teacher training, and left them without a euro of subsidies, Escola Valenciana maintains not only its frenetic cultural and festive activity to normalize the language in the Valencian Country, but also the Belx language with constant mobilizations. Next Monday, the sixth demonstration against the Valencian government will be held. "We are happy to be behind society's reaction," she maintains.

Months after the DANA, 93 schools are affected and a dozen that will have to be demolished. Normality is far away. "We live in a territory of misgovernment, where institutions are not on the side of the citizens," says Usó, "and when measures are taken, they go against the essence of our people, our language, and our culture," she laments. "There isn't a single leader who speaks a word of Catalan, but they say Catalan is the norm," he explains. The so-called "law of educational freedom" is what has them most concerned about how the groups will be distributed, how enrollment will be carried out, and what level of discretion and violation of rights the government will apply next year. "The rights of Valencian speakers are not guaranteed in the Valencian Community, they are not guaranteed in education," he says, although he acknowledges that "the shot has backfired" on the government, because the results of the language consultation They weren't what they expected.

"Every time the right brings out a ghost that works for them, it's that of pan-Catalanism," says Usó, who defends a term that drives the right crazy, namely the Països Catalans. "Let's play the role that the government should play, which is to work for the normalization of the language. We're a bargain," reproaches the president of the Escola Valenciana, "it's just that they don't see it."