As it can go unnoticed among Florentine controversies, attention must be drawn to the impressive demonstration led by Escola Valenciana on Friday in Valencia. The adjective historic is burned out by the metalanguages of football and politics, but there are facts that certainly are, historic, not only as an emphatic resource but because they will remain in the collective memory as a reference. This demonstration on Friday in Valencia for public and quality education in Catalan (or Valencian, as they wish to call it) I believe is one of those facts, and I do not write it with more forcefulness because historic facts, by definition, always require the validation of time.A true green tide made up of many thousands of people (the dance of figures is irrelevant in the face of evidence) collapsed the center of Valencia on a great day in the streets that falls within a strike – it should be emphasized – indefinite. From the protest, a series of things can be pointed out: on the one hand, the Escola Valenciana movement is one of the most powerful tools that Valencian civil society has and is also one of the most important civil movements in the Catalan Countries. On the other hand, Friday's large demonstration does not spring from nothing, but is the mature fruit of many years (not just those of this legislature) of continuous work by Valencians to protect fundamental rights such as public education and the right to live in their own language. More: against those who allow themselves to assert, often out of prejudice and ignorance, that the Valencian Country is demobilized or lost, this multitudinous demonstration is — I use the words of a tweet by Gustau Muñoz — “a gust of fresh, cheerful, imaginative, Valencian, civic, critical and festive air”. If anything, it can be objected that this citizen energy lacks more effective political channeling, capable of being victorious at the polls. But this same objection, with the appropriate variables, can also be applied to Catalonia and the Balearic Islands. In Catalonia, the strike and educational protests also have great force and echo an ancient and very long-standing unease, and the scandal of police infiltrations has further justified teachers, if necessary. In the Balearic Islands, there is no teaching mobilization at the moment, because the PP still remembers with fear the green tide of thirteen years ago and has tried to calm spirits, even though aggressions against public schools and Catalan continue to occur in a trickle.In Valencia, Friday's show of force served as a response to an Education Ministry and a government of the Generalitat Valenciana that, since the beginning of this legislature, have made frontal hostility against teachers and professors, against public schools, and against Valencian an ideological banner. This Monday they have to talk again, but it is doubtful that the Council of Pérez Llorca, heir of the still unpunished Mazón, will be able to do anything to reduce the tension.
