It's the world upside down. Under Pere Aragonès's presidency, we talked about Hard Rock, Quart Cinturó, and El Prat Airport. The ERC program was fading away while the PSC, with its decisive votes, boasted of setting the political agenda. And now that Salvador Illa is president, when Foment del Treball was salivating over a government business friendly that would put an end to "tax hell" and accelerate the airport, it turns out that the central points of the legislature, thanks to the influence of ERC and Comuns, have to do with housing, tourism control, amnesty (agreed in Madrid by Junts) and the situation of the Catalan language. The only core objective that the PSC has achieved is to lull the conflict, and in the process Catalan politics as a whole, which weakens the independence bloc and, according to the calculations of the spin doctors, will strengthen the PSC's hegemony in the years to come. It seems that Salvador Illa has abandoned proactive management in favor of the higher objective of securing a landslide victory in the next election, whenever it may be. The Socialists have plenty of patience.
The new National Pact for Language is also a result of pressure from the ERC (Republic of the Congo), which initiated the preliminary work while in government. The Pact has a flaw: it calls itself a "national language agreement." national Despite some notable absences, such as Junts and the CUP (the far right is neither present nor expected). The CUP's exclusion can be understood by its tendency toward maximalism, but the position of Junts, a party that aspires to regain centrality, is more difficult to explain. It's true that the Pact lacks ambition, but it also proposes a series of very valid, well-reasoned measures, and also a framework for innovative debate regarding the situation of Catalan, a framework in which the socialist mantra of "exemplary linguistic coexistence" is completely challenged. This is understood not only by ERC and Comuns, but also by Òmnium Cultural and the Platform for Language, which signed the agreement, albeit with suspicion. Juntos could have relied on a critical and vigilant adherence, but once again it has allowed itself to be carried away by the narcissism of its leaders, who only sign things when they are their own idea.
The Pact is a document that draws a stark contrast between the harshness of its diagnosis and the moderation of its proposed measures. For a PSC (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) that a year ago practically adopted the Ciutadans (Citizens) rhetoric, it represents a notable shift. But it may not be enough to reverse the linguistic emergency we are experiencing. However, within the limits of the statutory framework (the unvoted Statute, which is what governs us) and the Constitution, I don't know if we can go much further. Anything short of putting in writing that knowledge of Catalan is a must—as is the case with Spanish throughout Spain—is and will be insufficient. Could that discourage certain Hispanophile immigrants, a certain number ofexpats That they don't move from English? Perhaps that's the price we have to pay, and I would pay it without hesitation.
Anything less than sovereignty, in short, condemns us to subordination and, in the long run, to disappearance. And now we have a document – the Pact for the Language – that says: "The official status of Catalan is incomplete, is affected by regressive reinterpretations and often cannot be exercised." de facto [...]. Catalan is experiencing a conditional official status that hinders the exercise of citizenship rights and endangers the future of the language." Clear and Catalan.
