Organizations are preparing for a Constitutional Court setback for Catalan in schools.

Barcelona / MadridIn the last legislature, still under the government of Pere Aragonès, two measures were approved to stop the 25% of Spanish that the High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) imposed on the entire education system: a decree law that rejected the application of percentages in education, approved by the pro-independence majority in Parliament; and a law, also endorsed by the PSC (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party), which established Catalan as the teaching language, but did not explicitly mention vetoing percentages, but rather stated that the use of official languages should be adapted to the sociolinguistic reality of each school. Both laws, approved in 2022, served to curb in extremis The application of the 25% limit across the entire education system—it is already being applied in specific centers—is being analyzed by the Constitutional Court, and according to various legal sources consulted by ARA, the high court's verdict could be a further setback for Catalan. Decree-law. It was passed just a few days before the law regulating the same issue, so the safeguards body will interpret that there is no "extraordinary need" to opt for a decree-law.

This would have serious implications, according to the pro-language entities. "mode," they say, pointing to the recent decision to cancel the instructions for the 2022-2023 academic year because they did not include Spanish as a teaching language in schools. Sources from the Constitutional Court, however, have a different opinion: they believe that if it ends up endorsing the law—despite the fact that the decree is not endorsed—it will be sufficient to avoid the imposition of the 25%. "It will have to accept a law that does not establish percentages," they note.

While waiting for the resolutions, the entities are already preparing to respond to a possible setback. "[If the decree is overturned] We would be left without legal protection regarding the regulations that explicitly prohibited percentages," sources from these entities lament to ARA, as they point out that the law approved with the vote of the PSC is "ambiguous." In statements to ARA, Òmnium explains that it has been meeting for months with other language entities as well as with the educational world to try to articulate a response to the possible setback from the Constitutional Court. "A national response is necessary," they say. For its part, Plataforma per la Llengua (PxLL) also warns that it has been preparing for the "worst-case scenario" for some time, taking into account its experience with the Constitutional Court. In fact, they recall that it was the Constitutional Court (TC) that established, in its 2010 ruling against the Statute of Autonomy, that Catalan could not be the sole language of instruction in non-university education. Specifically, the ruling stated: "Both languages must be not only the subject of instruction but also a means of communication throughout the entire educational process. It is constitutionally obligatory that both co-official languages be recognized by the public authorities as the language of instruction."

In fact, the law passed by the PSC (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party), ERC (Electrical Workers' Party), Junts (Junts), and Comuns (Comuns) established Spanish as a "curricular" language for the first time, and adapted to this jurisprudence. The only difference with what the TSJC (High Court of Justice) requested (to apply 25% of Spanish to the entire education system) was that it was up to the Generalitat and the schools, through their educational projects, to decide what proportion of teaching is done in each language. This is what they said. the legal services of the Parliament before the TC when in 2022 They had to present their arguments to defend the constitutionality of the law, following the appeals filed by the PP and Ciutadans and also the question of unconstitutionality by the TSJC itself.

The National Pact for Language, stuck

The entities are in contact with each other, also through the Som Escola platform, which brings them all together, to prepare a response to a possible setback, but at the same time they have already demanded that the Government also prepare. Both Òmnium and the Platform for Language have met. Officially, the Department of Language Policy, headed by Francesc Xavier Vila, prefers not to anticipate any events: "We do not make public statements regarding a ruling that has not yet been issued; we are working to address any scenario when it arises," say official sources consulted by ARA.

The entities trust that the executive will at least seek a legal response to try to "dodge" the imposition of a percentage throughout the system, despite knowledgeable sources admitting that Isla's government does not want to enter into direct collision with the Constitutional Court and rules out disobedience. It should be noted, in relation to the decree law that is at risk, that the PSC opposed its validation in the Parliament, so the legal response to the TC would probably take another form.

In this sense, for months the parties have been negotiating with the Government the National Pact for Language, which should have been completed in 2023, but is precisely waiting.due to the pending ruling by the Constitutional Court. Neither Junts nor the CUP are keen to reach an agreement with the executive right now: "We want guarantees," say Junts sources, as they claim the Catalan government hasn't clarified whether it will face a setback from the Constitutional Court. The CUP explicitly asks that if the Constitutional Court overturns the decree, Illa's government should re-approve it and incorporate it into the Catalan law for schools, where they want the adjective "curricular" removed from Spanish—they already opposed it at the time for this reason. "We will not sign the agreement because it doesn't address how to deal with the State's judicial impositions," summarize CUP sources.

The calendar

There is no scheduled date for the Constitutional Court's ruling, despite the fact that it has been talking about an "imminent" decision for months. Since at least December, both Òmnium and PxLL have been monitoring the Constitutional Court's agenda every two weeks to see if the discussion on Catalan is taking place. For whatever reason, in any case, they assert that the response will involve street demonstrations, international legal avenues, and involving other actors outside the usual sphere in defending the school model.