Spain has returned to bring this Tuesday the official status of Catalan to the European Union. As the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, had already announced, the Spanish executive has explained to the EU General Affairs Council that it links the recognition of Basque, Galician, and Catalan to the accession of new states to the community club. It considers it "unthinkable" that another language be added to the official regime of the EU (such as Montenegrin or Albanian) if the official status of the co-official languages of the Spanish state has not been accepted beforehand.

The Spanish Foreign Minister, José Manuel Albares, has a clear answer. One of the "greatest obstacles" to making Catalan, Basque, and Galician official in the European Union is his Italian counterpart, Antonio Tajani. Or, put another way, the pressure that the Spanish PP exerts on its partners. This is what he stated in a speech this Wednesday at the plenary session of Congress, in which he accused Alberto Núñez Feijóo's party of influencing the European People's Party to "halt" this initiative. "The gentleman from Italy whom you invite to your congresses and whom Feijóo is always hugging is one of the biggest obstacles to these languages not yet being official –he asserted–. Have you reproached him for doing this? I have".

The episode of the supposed Catalan-to-Spanish interpreter who was unable to translate even a couple of simple sentences in the trial against the four police officers who put out the eye of activist Roger Español, causing the Catalan lawyers to have to self-translate or switch directly to Spanish, is by no means anecdotal. In the case of a political trial like this one (a trial is political when a victim of police violence for political reasons still has to go through the ordeal of being revictimized to claim the recognition that is owed to them), a fact like this must be understood as an added, or at the very least, subsequent aggression that should have been avoided by all means. Instead of this, the aggression occurred with all the harshness and all the absurdity that characterize the eternal contempt of the Spanish justice system for linguistic diversity, that is, for any language other than Spanish. Because this is the other circumstance that makes the scene at the trial against the police officers who mutilated Español impossible to consider an isolated or anecdotal event: the list not only of slights, but also of judicial actions in the form of resolutions and sentences, by the Spanish justice system against the Catalan language is already endless, uncountable, and unacceptable. And it reaches exactly to this very day.

One of the headlines left this Thursday by the Roger Español case trial has to do with the interpreters who were in the courtroom, unable to translate the lawyers' questions from Catalan to Spanish. The lawyers for the private and popular accusations, exercised by Irídia, Òmnium and the ANC, ended up self-translating or questioning the police directly in Spanish after up to two interpreters could not do their job, a fact that the entities have denounced for "violation of linguistic rights". But how could this situation have occurred?

The afternoon begins dully with a heat that only seems tolerable because the permanent state of exception of the climate has forced us to lower our standards. It is a public holiday Friday and Catalan politics has accumulated so many years of apathy that I admit I arrive loaded with preventive pessimism at Plaça Universitat, and I sink into prejudice when I find the ANC stalls full of white hair. Then I cling to the lifeline of a group of teenagers with estelades who pass by me. They are shy, they explain to me that they have come down by train from Os de Balaguer and say they don't know much about politics. To shake them up a bit, I ask them to compare this Diada with the previous ones they have experienced, and they all agree on one point: "There are more young people than ever." As I get closer to the heart of the matter, I realize they are absolutely right: I haven't missed a single protest since 2012 and I had never seen so many young people. Although the rational part of my brain knows that the absolute number cannot be compared to that of the epic years, the impression of seeing a proportion of young people higher than that of older people completely changes the emotional color of the Diada.

Júlia Riera (Alt Empordà, 1999) is the creator of Daily Catalan, the largest online Catalan learning channel for foreigners. She has just published her first book, Let's Speak Català! (Penguin), which mixes history, language, culture and, as it could not be otherwise, gastronomy.

Languages are not only useful for conversation, but also for legislating, negotiating, defending rights, and building societies. Catalan is one of them. And in the Balearic Islands, this reality takes on a special dimension: the native language coexists with a rich legal tradition that is part of the identity of the Islands and remains fully in force.

Rubén Viñuales (Tarragona, 1983) left Ciutadans six years ago for the PSC, with whom he reached the mayoralty of Tarragona in 2023. Since then, he has governed in minority, but has been able to approve, with relative ease, the budgets by closing pacts with different parties. In this interview conducted at the Diari ARA newsroom, he talks about his city, but also about the far-right, judges, and the use of Catalan.

The Spanish Supreme Court rules “the use of Spanish in the signage of educational centers” supported by public funds cannot be excluded. In the ruling, therefore, an entire section of the document on the organization and management of educational centers (approved by the Department of Education in July 2022) is annulled, which stated that “the signage of the center's spaces is in Catalan, Occitan in Aran, and in Catalan Sign Language if applicable”. It annuls it (and thus shows us that what can be decreed by a government is useless) due to an appeal filed by the Assembly for a Bilingual School, and which the high court has “upheld”. I say “upheld” because that is what is said in legal language, but the polysemy in our language does not bother me.

The history of Spanish state nationalism is a history of repressions against minorities. One of the most persistent repressive fronts is the linguistic one: if we were to print all the jurisprudence that has been generated —only in democracy: we don't need to go back to the Decree of Nova Planta— to deprotect Catalan and relegate it from social use, and to reinforce, on the contrary, the presence and use of Spanish, we would have paper to wallpaper the Supreme Court, the Constitutional Court, and the High Court of Justice of Catalonia. And with all certainty, there would still be some left over.The new ruling is from the Supreme Court, and it corrects the High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC), which has imposed with various rulings the 25% of Spanish in teaching hours, even —or especially— against the linguistic regulations set by the Generalitat. But the brand new ruling from the Supreme Court comes to say that the TSJC's efforts are not enough: now they also rule on the language in which the signage of schools and educational centers must be done. As they themselves say, “signage is not irrelevant”. The ruling states that school signage can be in the bilingual Spanish/Catalan version, but what is certain is that, at a minimum, it must be in Spanish. Argument to support this? “Spanish is the official language throughout Spain, which means it is a language that cannot be excluded from communications between public authorities and citizens". This is an argument that closely approaches the phrase that serves as the title of this article, a slogan that the Spanish state disseminated in Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, and the Valencian Community during the Franco dictatorship. It resembles it perhaps not so much in letter, but in spirit.That Spanish is “the official language throughout Spain”, as the ruling emphasizes, is not an accidental fact nor the fruit of divine grace. Without going back to historical explanations, Spanish is “the official language throughout Spain” because the Constitution of '78, in an article 3 that the ruling also cites, establishes it as such in the current democratic stage: Spanish is official throughout the Spanish state and it is a duty for Spanish citizens to know it, while “other languages” (not mentioned by name) are recognized the “right to be used” and to be “also official in their respective autonomous communities” (not co-official, this is a term that further diminishes the official presence of Catalan and which incomprehensibly many repeat like parrots).Therefore, the Constitution enshrines a principle of inequality that serves as a legal argument for a ruling that is ideological and political. There is in this ruling a component of the day and another of substance. Of the day: whoever can do it, let them do it, that is, a bombardment of rulings that could destabilize the Sánchez government through its relationship with Catalan partners, especially Junts. Of substance: an eternal nationalism whose raison d'être lies in the fight against diversity in all its forms. Also (perhaps especially) against linguistic and cultural diversity.

Shaun Debnath (Barcelona, 2004) was born and raised in El Raval. He is a content creator and defines himself as "Catalan, Indian, and gay: triple threat". We meet in the gardens of the Historic Building of the University of Barcelona, where, between study hours for his computer engineering exams (a detail he mentions in a low voice so as not to reinforce stereotypes), he grants us some time to talk about his experience on social media.

It often happens to me – and I take for granted it's a generational thing – that in my circle, the fact that my husband and I don't watch series or movies together is met with surprise. I say it must be generational because only people our age remember when families used to gather to watch TV, all at the same time and on the same channel.

We tend to think that Europe has been as it is for a long time. But no. The Europe we know, with its countries and languages, was born dizzyingly between 1870 and 1871. And this continental Big Bang exploded because of a Catalan, General Joan Prim.

1. The ECHR's decision regarding the presence of the Catalan language in the education system has probably been the hardest blow this issue has received since the TC's ruling against the 2006 Statute.

I suppose you are aware of the news that the European Court of Human Rights has dismissed the lawsuit by parents of the Canet de Mar school against the ruling that ordered 25% of classes to be taught in Spanish.

The Catalan linguistic immersion model, which has weakened over the years and with social changes, is one of the fronts that needs to be reformulated to improve the situation of Catalan. When asked how, the Minister of Linguistic Policy points to Northern Catalonia. "La Bressola has an immersion model that, with 2% Catalan-speaking students, manages to make Catalan the language among equals without adult supervision. If this is possible in its context, it must be possible in other centers," he stated in the last interview with ARA. In Catalonia, only half of 6th graders always speak Catalan with teachers and only one in four always speaks Catalan when doing group work with classmates. Outside the classroom, 60% of students do not use Catalan with their peers. How do they manage at La Bressola to ensure students actually converse in Catalan in the classroom, playground, and dining hall?

The popular singing of La Balanguera on Friday in Mallorca was a massive success. Tens of thousands of Mallorcans took to the streets and squares (or to educational centers, as was the case for many students) to participate in an act of affirmation as a country, as a society, and as a cultural and linguistic community that recognizes itself in a series of references and in a common heritage.The most valuable element of this common heritage is the Catalan language: Majorcans have been speaking Catalan for eight hundred years and it is the native language of the Balearic Islands. Catalan from Mallorca, speaking it and sharing it, is the attribute that identifies us as Majorcans and it is the best we can offer to people arriving on the island, as immigrants or for whatever reason. Catalan is the tool that will allow them to live fully as Majorcans, the instrument that will allow them to share their own cultural and linguistic contributions. That is why it is so, so important.At the same time, Catalan finds itself in a delicate situation in Mallorca due to linguistic gentrification, which corresponds with territorial, housing, labor, and economic gentrification. Gentrification as a synonym for overexploitation and speculation. The protests of Majorcans in defense of the language and public school (two things that go together) are also against this reality, in which the exaggerated economic benefits of a few come at the cost of the common good and enormous inequalities among the citizens of this island.The mobilizations of Mallorcans for Catalan are successful. This first performance of La Balanguera has been, as was, a few weeks ago, the arrival of the Correllengua Agermanat flame in Palma, or the Yes to the language of 2024 and 2025: large protest demonstrations, with strong participation and presence of young people who do move and commit themselves to defending Catalan. The entity that has promoted the mobilizations (or has supported them, in the case of Correllengua Agermanat, organized by a conglomerate of entities) is the Obra Cultural Balear, which has addressed its demands to a deaf PP government with its back turned, which has made it its main priority to please the far-right and ultra-Spanishist allies of Vox. The novelty in the performance of La Balanguera was that the main institutional representatives of the PP of the Balearic Islands attended: the President of the Government, Marga Prohens; the President of the Consell de Mallorca, Llorenç Galmés; and the Mayor of Palma, Jaime Martínez. It has been a show of skill by the president of the OCB, Antoni Llabrés, and his team to have left these rulers literally without excuses for not joining an act that could only annoy fanatics. At the same time, it forces them to review the calamitous linguistic and educational policy they have pursued so far. The opposition parties also have duties, and they are not minor: all this citizen energy hopes to find a channel, a political articulation, proposals that make them vote with enthusiasm.

Have a creative idea? Is it in Catalan? Do you want to make it shine? The Carulla Foundation is once again opening a call to find the most innovative ideas to promote the use of Catalan. The second edition of Call for ideas for Catalan seeks new cultural projects, allocating up to €40,000 in a new call that ends on June 5.

“A coffee with milk and two croissants, these, with ham and cheese”, I tell her. She opens her eyes not like plates, like platters, like trays, like saucers, like industrial lids. She says nothing. She stares at me without moving a muscle. Not a word. So, I stare back at her. Her and me, staring at each other intently, like in a duel. Finally, to break the ice, I say: “Yes?” That slightly impertinent “yes” you use when you think someone hasn’t understood you but should have, or when someone is distracted and isn’t paying attention. She remains astonished; but does she know she is astonished? I don’t think so, because she surely doesn’t know the meaning of the word, and if she doesn’t know it, she can’t, in any way, name what is happening to her. If you simplify language, you simplify feelings.

On Tuesday, on Telenotícies vespre, we were informed of the creation of the office for the protection of linguistic rights by the government of the Generalitat. It is born with the intention of accompanying people who wish to file complaints regarding possible violations in the use of the language. This was communicated by Salvador Illa at the event celebrating the first anniversary of the National Pact for Language, where the Minister of Linguistic Policy, Francesc Xavier Vila, admitted that there was still work to be done. And he is right. The same day, during the very long commercial break of El petit peó, the Sense ficció dedicated to Arturito Pomar, we thought about this news. We swallowed ten minutes of ads: a total of twenty-five spots and four self-promotions from the channel. During this commercial break, three ads in Spanish appeared, which, coincidentally or not, were broadcast consecutively. The first was an advertisement for Gillette razor blades designed for female users. Lo and behold, the presenter was the influencer Laura Escanes, who told us that “Hay días que necesito tiempo para mí” and that “el mango pivotante me deja la piel suave incluso en zonas difíciles”. Taking into account that the content creator is part of the channel's roster of signings, it is strange to see her on the same television for which she works addressing the audience in Spanish. Of course, it is not her fault but that of the commercial department, which should take into account this type of contradiction. In the same commercial break, we saw an advertisement for adhesive silicones where the veteran journalist Pedro Piqueras spoke in Catalan with an expert on this product. The other ad in Spanish was for Michelin. If other international brands like Bimbo, Ikea, Carrefour, and Verisure are interested in advertising on TV3 in Catalan (and this is what happened during this long break), surely the very famous tire brand could also do so. Considering the number of Catalan chefs awarded stars by their guide, they know perfectly well that Catalonia has its own cultural identity and language. The other ad in Spanish was, lo and behold, from the Ministry of Social Rights, Consumer Affairs and the 2030 Agenda. A spot narrated in Spanish and subtitled in Catalan. Thanks for the detail. But it is outrageous that an advertisement from a ministry of Spain is not recorded in the different co-official languages of the State. Take note, Councillor Vila. It is unheard of that the Spanish government uses Catalan public television to communicate with citizens in a language that is not the channel's own, because this reinforces the idea that in the institutional sphere, Spanish is the universal main language and Catalan, in subtitles, is of an inferior rank. Normalizing exceptions makes the duty to advertise in Catalan on TV3 lose its meaning. If some companies don't do it, why should others? It deactivates the possibility of applying a criterion and turns it into an inconsistency. And inconsistency affects the legitimacy of any future demand.