Feijóo signs a "contract with Spain" that again questions linguistic immersion in Catalonia

MadridAlberto Núñez Feijóo wants to show that he has nothing to do with Pedro Sánchez. The PP leader describes the Spanish Prime Minister as someone without any moral values, who uses institutions for personal interest and who systematically lies to the citizenry. Faced with this, Feijóo staged an event this Monday in Madrid, surrounded by much of the party's top brass, where he pledged to be the complete opposite. "Spaniards deserve a president who always tells them the truth," he stressed, also committing to "the law," "effort," and "unity." The Popular Party president has signed a document, titled "my contract with Spain," which gathers this philosophy and twelve other points, including the promise to reinforce Spanish in Catalan classrooms.

Thus, the PP is once again questioning linguistic immersion, which bursts in, once more, in the middle of the November 29th pre-campaign. The text signed by Feijóo states that "any indoctrination in classrooms will be eradicated" and that "the teaching of Spanish throughout Spain and of co-official languages in their respective autonomous communities will be guaranteed." It does not go into detail about how this will be done—whether this will imply imposing a specific percentage of Spanish, which might even exceed the controversial 25% that the High Court of Justice of Catalonia established in specific cases—but it opens the door to changing the linguistic reality in Catalan schools. This warning from the PP has already sparked indignation in Catalonia.

"Catalan is not to be touched," warned the President of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, who defended the current model and accused Feijóo of speaking from "ignorance." Illa claimed that linguistic immersion is "one of the most prominent elements of self-government" and warned that with Feijóo it will be "at risk." The leader of ERC, Oriol Junqueras, also expressed concern, warning that the PP and Vox "are the main threat to our entities, education, and self-government." Junqueras has established ERC as a "bulwark against this reactionary wave," and its secretary-general, Elisenda Alamany, insisted in a press conference that "Catalonia will speak clearly and in Catalan on November 29th." "Let Feijóo not get his hopes up," she replied.

The PP's stance against linguistic immersion is not new, although it had not yet appeared in this pre-campaign, even though Feijóo was in Catalonia this Sunday. In the electoral program of the previous general elections, in 2023, the Popular Party spoke of guaranteeing "the pattern of linguistic balance" to ensure that the mastery of Spanish and Catalan was equivalent. In the political policy approved at the party congress in July 2025, it was also mentioned with the commitment to "guarantee the constitutional right to receive education in Spanish at all stages of the educational system and throughout the nation" and added that it would do so "in compliance with judicial rulings".

The relationship with Vox

After the PSOE and the Broad Front have signed an agreement to run together in the Senate, Vox has demanded that the PP do the same with them. In a statement without questions, Santiago Abascal has argued that "sacrifices" are necessary and expressed the willingness to reach an understanding "that protects the Senate from the agreements that Sánchez has reached with the far-left". For now, the PP is avoiding publicly committing to it. Both Abascal and Feijóo have mentioned the protests in France to warn against the leader of the PSOE and to position themselves as the counter-formula to "the violence of the radical left".