The pro-Spanish organizations extend their war against Catalan to Valencia and the Balearic Islands.

BarcelonaFirst it was in Catalonia, but now the Spanish-speaking organizations that fight Catalan in schools are expanding their borders and are operating in both the Valencian Community and the Balearic Islands. The latest chapter has been the consultation about the language in the Valencian Country, in which Escuela de Todos was seen appearing before the Valencian Ombudsman. Last Monday, it was made public that the platform of entities born in Catalonia to defend Spanish in schools had reported 78 Valencian town councils to the regional ombudsman for "violating the rules of institutional neutrality by publicly requesting families choose Valencian as the primary language of education." Eight of these town councils are PP-affiliated—such as Xàbia and Sueca—two of them in coalition with Vox. According to the organization, they did not find any council that requested a vote for Spanish.

Despite not reporting the president of the Valencia Provincial Council, the Popular Party (PP) member Vicent Mompó, the president of Escuela de Todos, Ana Losada, is asking the PP to take action against him. Why does the organization now also have a presence in Valencia? "We are most present in the Balearic Islands, Catalonia, and Valencia because the situation is much more complicated," Losada, who also chairs the Assembly for a Bilingual School, assures ARA.

It is true that they also have a presence in Navarre, for example, but it is not the territory with the greatest incidence. Losada complains that the Balearic system tends towards immersion, and following the reform of the PSPV and Compromís government in the Valencian Country, there was also a model with a predominance of Catalan. In Galicia, on the other hand, he sees "respect for Spanish," while in the Basque Country the system of lines is still in place. Escuela de Todos (School for All) opted in 2023 to expand to the entire State with the aim of defending the vehicular use of Spanish: "We want to generate a change in the Spanish government's language policy with minimum standards for all of Spain," he maintains.

Language, key

But it's not the only entity born in Catalonia that has landed in the Valencian Community. In fact, Catalan Civil Society (SCC) had autonomous counterparts in the state: Valencian Civil Society, Balearic Civil Society, and Navarrese Civil Society. According to its president, Elda Mata, this is partly explained by the "imperialist" conception both in Navarre and in the Catalan-speaking territories. "The idea of Països Catalans, which have never existed, is a fiction that is disliked in the Balearic Islands and in Valencia. Within nationalism, there is a pan-Catalanist idea that imposes that Mallorcan is not spoken in the Balearic Islands and Valencian is not spoken in Valencia, but Catalan is spoken, and this is repulsive in these territories, which reject this interference," whether or not they speak Catalan—something scientifically proven and endorsed by the Balearic Statute and the Valencian Academy of Language.

"Language as an identity weapon to create nations isn't going well. [...] The things that happen to us are very similar," Mata adds. He also points out that all the entities inspired by SCC "defend people's rights to use Spanish" and "the law" in general, opposing nationalism. For his part, the president of Convivencia Cívica Catalana, Ángel Escolano, argues that "in Catalonia, Valencia, and the Balearic Islands, there has been a language policy of maximums" with cases of "generalized immersion" as in the Principality, or the Balearic minimum law, in addition to legislative linguistic modifications "especially following the Valencian government."

All these entities fight the Catalan language from the Països Catalans, but there is one that has also chosen to take the crusade to Galicia. This is Hablamos Español, which, despite being heavily mobilized in Valencia, is fighting Galician and, despite its minimal prevalence, Asturian as well.