Thursday is October 9th, National Day of the Valencian Country, which this year inevitably precedes the first anniversary of the DANA tragedy, which will be observed on the 29th. Under the pretext of the celebration, and with the obvious aim of diverting attention, the government led by Carlos Mazón has launched a campaign with a slogan: "Long live." In fact, the posters repeat it three times: "Long live, long live, long live."
"Viva" is the written translation of how some people in Valencia pronounce the word Viva, which is sung in the regional anthem: "Viva Valencia," etc. Obviously, it's also a spelling mistake. Publishing an institutional poster with a spelling mistake, and doing so on purpose, is disrespectful to the language of the Valencian people and an act of stupidity paid for, without shame or decorum, with taxpayer money. According to Mazón and company, it's a vindication or something about the "traditional" language of the Valencians, a language they are completely ignorant of because they only speak Spanish. Catalan (or Valencian, however you want to call it) they simply don't know. Not about the traditional, the current, or the futuristic. They only know that they want to break it, sully it, residualize it, ridicule it, corner it, and, ultimately, eliminate it.
In this endeavor, the Valencian People's Party (PP) seems to have acquired a taste for spelling mistakes, because they must believe this helps them separate "Valencian" from "Catalan," as the linguistic secessionism of a good part of the Valencian Spanish right advocates. First, they approved the mind-boggling name "Valencia," with this acute "e" that has the merit of being incorrect in two languages at once. And now they've come up with this "Viva, viva, viva" (Long live the people). Fortunately, popular ingenuity never fails (and that of Valencians even less so), and the Mazonesque campaign already has replicas on the networks. For example, the same poster but with the slogan "Ventorro, Ventorro, Ventorro," much more appropriate, not for October 9th, but for the political, intellectual, and human stature of the unfortunate president of the Generalitat Valenciana.
In the meantime, we must not tire of saying it and repeating it: hating Catalan (hating any language) and governing to satisfy this hatred is a demonstration of complete and insurmountable stupidity, and above all, it is an attack on democracy and on a fundamental right of citizens, which is the right to live fully in their language. Mazón attacks the Valencian native for two reasons: one, because he is a cynic trying to evade his responsibilities for the events of the DANA (responsibilities that are political and also very likely criminal), and he is using the dirty waters of the linguistic war to continue his escape forward. And two, because he sincerely believes this is what must be done. He believes it; his Minister of Education, José Antonio Rovira; the former bullfighting vice president, Vicente Barrera; and, in general, all of Vox and a large part of the PP. They believe this is what must be done to bring new glory to Spain. Well, let them go and shake hands.
