Pablo Casado, leader of the PP: "You don't speak Catalan in the Balearic Islands! Who would think of that!"

Every time the president of the state PP, Pablo Casado, steps on the Balearic Islands, he charges against the Balearic language, and the 16th Balearic congress was no exception. Minutes after the election of Marga Prohens as president of the party in the Balearic Islands, Casado has made the concluding speech, during which he has assured that in the Islands Catalan is not spoken, but "Mallorcan, Menorcan, Ibicencan and Formenteran". "In the Balearic Islands you don't speak Catalan! Who would think of that" he said to an applause from the audience and after Prohens had highlighted the uniqueness of the Islands and their own culture.

In addition, Casado has criticised that the Catalan language is a requirement to work in the public health system. "What anaesthetised Mallorcan who has to undergo surgery cares if the doctor doesn't know Catalan?" he said, strongly demanding "freedom also in the civil service". And, of course, he also made reference to education, an area in which the PP defends "the freedom of parents" to choose the language of instruction of their children.

He has even taken advantage of Pedro Sánchez's trip to the United States to hand out another attack against the alleged discrimination that Castilian suffers in the territories with their own language. "Why doesn't Sánchez defend Castilian in Mallorca, Ibiza, Formentera, Valencia, Tarragona and Guipúzcoa", he asked. "Or at least the freedom for all children to be educated in both co-official languages", he added.

Two years ago, Casado already claimed for Catalan to not be a requirement for access to the civil service, although that time he was not so bold and did not claim that in the Balearic Islands Catalan is not spoken. However, he did state that in the Islands there was what he called a "cordial bilingualism", and that it was not "to the detriment of Castilian". At the time, Casado did stress his commitment to "Mallorcan, Menorcan,  Ibicencan and Formenteran", without even pronouncing the word Catalan.