The far right is not making as much progress as it would like across France, but it is gaining new municipalities and strengthening its position in Northern Catalonia. National Rally (RN), Marine Le Pen's party, already secured the mayorship of Perpignan a week ago with an absolute majority in the first round, and this Sunday it won in the second round of the municipal elections In Ribesaltes and Cañoses, in Roussillon. The far-right politician Steve Fortel also won in Elna, and Gilles Foxonet, another far-right politician, retained his position in Baixàs. "It's a lesson for the future of Catalonia and Spain: simply calling them fascists isn't enough," former mayor of Elna Nicolas Garcia told ARA. "We Catalans can't win," added Forques councilor Jordi Vera, who emphasized that 60% of the population comes from outside Northern Catalonia.

Catalan nationalism in Northern Catalonia will face a crucial test this Sunday in the municipal elections. Beyond understanding the state of the movement, the keystone is Perpignan. The northern Catalan capital is the largest city in France with a mayor from the far-right National Rally party, Louis Aliot, who recently told EFE that he is not "anti-Catalan," only "anti-independence," and that he defends "Catalan culture," despite having vetoed a wedding conducted in Catalan because he insisted on French. Sant Jordi has been cornered in the middle of his progressive change of the cityWith over 120,000 inhabitants, Perpignan accounts for a quarter of the population of Northern Catalonia, which is approaching half a million, and is the main battleground for Catalan nationalism, which is also divided there. Perpignan's importance helps explain why the leader of the French far right, Jordan Bardella, and the far left, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, have both landed there. How does Catalan nationalism approach the elections?

The days are getting longer, and on the northern slopes of the Pyrenees, at the foot of the Canigou massif, a valley welcomes spring with the white and pink of cherry blossoms. Watered by the pure waters of the Tec River, which rises near the border, Vallespir is a northern Catalan region of contrasts and cultural riches that remains relatively unknown. A thermal valley, in bloom and, above all, not overcrowded, just two hours by car from Barcelona, ​​with ancient traditions and monuments: from the Bear Festival in Prats de Molló to the Museum of Modern Art in Ceret, a mecca of Cubism, and the Benedictine Abbey of Santa Maria de Arles – founded in 1977. The valley offers seven stays to improve health, prescribed by the French Social Security system, for some 20,000 pensioners. Vallespir is divided into two sub-regions, Alt and Baix, primarily due to its topography. Descending from the Ares pass, where thousands of Catalans crossed the border during the Retirada (the Catalan retreat) fleeing Franco's regime, Prats de Molló marks the entrance to the more mountainous region. Céret and its cherry orchards are the capital of the Baix Vallespir, at the gateway to the Roussillon plain. Much of the route can easily be cycled along a greenway with spectacular, ancient metal bridges, such as the 14th-century Devil's Bridge of Céret, one of the largest single-arch medieval bridges in the world. This is the old railway line that connected the Baths of Arles (Arles-sur-Tech in French) with Elna, which opened in 1898 and operated until the 1930s.

Catalan language teaching in Northern Catalonia is not showing significant improvement. Only 19% of students have any contact with Catalan during their education, the same as five years ago and just two percentage points higher than a decade ago. This represents 15,700 students out of a total of 82,800, according to data from [source missing]. the Public Office of the Catalan LanguageA study analyzing the 2024-25 school year found that 81% of young students in Northern Catalonia do not encounter Catalan at school. Only 6% of students who study Catalan receive bilingual or immersive instruction (4,864). Half of the schools offer Catalan, but the number of students drops drastically as the educational level increases, making it difficult to foster fluency and effective use of the language. However, in primary school (ages 3-10), where Catalan is most prevalent in education, the increase is significant: in a decade, the percentage of students who have contact with the language has risen from 25% to 31% (13,000 children). 22% receive introductory Catalan, 5.6% study in bilingual schools, and 2.8% participate in immersion programs: 1,100 students attend Arrels or Bressola schools, which are growing but very slowly and represent a very small minority. However, bilingual education has gained one percentage point in a decade.

The town of Barcarès, in Roussillon, Northern Catalonia, has made a name for itself both in France and in the southern Albera region for its Christmas theme park, which is celebrating its 26th edition this year. Last year, despite a fire just days before the opening and other weather-related incidents, it nearly attracted a million visitors, and in 2023 it registered even more, close to 1.6 million. However, at the beginning of October, it was far from certain that the Barcarès Christmas Village would be held again this year. "Last year was very complicated, and this year we had no intention of doing it. We had the fire, the windstorm, the rain, the mayor also has some political and legal complications, and we need about 150 people to work here, and in a small town that's not easy to find. All of this meant that we didn't want to do it this year," explains Michel Sit.

The arrival of the National Regrouping (RN) party to power in the Perpignan city council in 2020 sparked excitement as to how the far-right party would govern a city with more than 100,000 inhabitants and, furthermore, the capital of a department, two characteristics that make Perpignan unique in France. A city test, as some French media defined it, although there was already the example of Besiers –with around 80,000 inhabitants–, where RN came to power in 2014 and continues to do so after also winning the 2020 municipal elections.

After a successful first edition, with 70 exhibitors and more than 7,000 visitors, the Perpignan Agricultural Festival returns this weekend with a more ambitious second edition. It will take place from October 10th to 12th, with more than 100 exhibitors, four invited departments, and more than 50 animals. This event highlights sustainable agriculture, gastronomy, and innovation in Northern Catalonia and this year opens in Occitania. "There were visitors who came with their families, others just to eat, and professionals also came. Most of the visitors were from the same department, but some came from further afield, from within the region and even from Southern Catalonia. Some exhibitors had to restock up on supplies up to twice during the weekend," recalled Elise Borieux, director of this second edition.

The majority of northern Catalans want more autonomy and more Catalan. This is evident from a survey published by Ifop, the French opinion research institute, which indicates that 87% of northern Catalans want Catalan to be officially recognized in France. Across France, 77% of citizens are in favor of the recognition of regional languages, a figure that has remained stable since the beginning of the century. Regarding the degree of autonomy, according to the study, the number of French people who believe that municipalities, departments, and regions lack sufficient power has increased considerably in recent years, thus distancing themselves from the country's centralist model, in which power is concentrated in Paris and departments and regions have very limited powers.

"Here, we're holding on as best we can." This is what Maria, a resident of Prada, says. She has been attending the Catalan Summer University (UCE) for years and sadly describes how Catalan is being lost in everyday life in Northern Catalonia, in businesses and homes. She turns to a couple of journalists in the UCE auditorium: she's curious to know which part of the Principality the accent she's heard them speak with corresponds to. Before the talk begins, she takes the opportunity to point out that, when she goes down to the Principality, she never switches languages: "When I go to Girona, I always speak Catalan. If they speak to me in Spanish, I leave. Catalan must be defended," she claims. But it's difficult to do so when, across the border, the French state tries by every means to keep it out of the institutions.

In mid-May I turned 37, a date when you're dangerously close to forty, and I thought it was time to start them off with a good challenge to keep going strong. A couple of years ago I pedal a gravel bike through Girona and I wanted to try cycling from home with everything you need to sleep away. It's what many have come to name bikepacking, although in my case I wanted to avoid carrying a tent and all the food, because I didn't intend to be self-sufficient. One route in particular caught my attention: what if I circumnavigated the Girona region in five days, traveling by bike for an average of eight hours? That's how my personal birthday present began, on a trip supported by the Greenways Consortium and the Girona-Costa Brava Tourist Board, which provided the accommodation.

In the winter of 1980-1981, a group of founding parents from La Bressola split off to create a school that would teach in Catalan and French from kindergarten to age 6. While we were preparing to open an Arrels school in Perpignan, the opportunity to create this radio station arose. Nothing was planned, and we launched into the adventure of creating this radio station before the school opened. We were preparing for the arrival of a child and found ourselves in the arms of a collaborator of La Bressola for four years. The opportunity Manzanares mentions came through a state law of May 1981 that allowed the creation of associative radio stations in France. They founded Radio Arrels, which began broadcasting on the 28th of that same month of May.

"The situation for Catalan in Northern Catalonia is terrible, and it's getting worse," says Pere Manzanares, a teacher and long-time language activist. The latest figures indicate that only 5% of a population of 500,000 speak Catalan regularly, although 20% of citizens say they know it. As if using Catalan weren't complicated enough in this context, two other threats are now being added to the mix, putting Ràdio Arrels, the Catalan-language radio station in Northern Catalonia, on the ropes: the cultural cuts that the French government has already hinted at to alleviate the public deficit, and the rise of the far right.

Farewell to Christopher Person as the Generalitat's delegate in PerpignanThe government says he resigned "at his own request." It doesn't matter; his continued tenure was untenable, and the government, which knew this, must have made it clear to him.

The government has relieved the director general of the Generalitat in Perpignan, Christopher Person, after he refused to speak about Northern Catalonia. In his place, the executive has appointed former mayor of Puigcerdà, Albert Piñeira (of the PDECat and later of Junts). According to the government, Person resigned "at his own request for personal reasons." However, the refusal of the former delegate in Perpignan to refer to the region for which he was previously the delegate as Northern Catalonia He raised a storm and former delegates from that same territory called for his dismissal.. The pro-independence parties (Junts, ERC, and the CUP) and Catalanist entities in Northern Catalonia also demanded it.

On March 20, Northern Catalonia entered the fray of Catalan politics with the controversy surrounding the delegate of Salvador Illa's government in the territory, Christopher Person, what's going on reject the name Catalunya del Nord. Beyond Junts, ERC and the CUP, there has been a northern Catalan party that has called for a dismissal that the executive has not done: Catalan Unity, a historic party created in 1986. A party that, in fact, has recently broken a historic barrier in Northern Catalonia. The Northern Catalan party has landed a representative on the departmental council of the Eastern Pyrenees, the equivalent of a provincial council that groups the Northern Catalan regions. With Jaume Pol, a Catalanist party has joined the institution for the first time, although there have been—and are—Catalanist representatives from French state parties, such as the Republican, Centrist, or Communist parties.

"The French state only recognizes the Pyrénées-Orientales designation, and we, from the delegation, or at least I as director general, must maintain institutional neutrality." With these words, the director general of the Generalitat in Perpignan, Christopher Person, justified last week in Parliament why he didn't want to use the term "Catalunya Nord" to refer specifically to the region where he is the delegate for the Generalitat. Person's position raised a storm, to the point that former delegates from this territory called for his dismissal, in addition to the pro-independence parties (Junts, ERC, and CUP) and Catalanist entities from the Catalunya Nord. For all these reasons, this Tuesday the spokesperson for the Catalan government, Silvia Paneque, had to address the controversy and asserted that the Socialist government has "no problem" with using the term "Catalunya Nord." However, it is true that the president of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, did not use this term at any time during his visit to the area a few days ago.

The representative of Salvador Illa's government in Northern Catalonia is increasingly under fire. Within Northern Catalan civil society, there is discontent with Christopher Person, the director of the Generalitat in Perpignan, who even denies the validity of the designation. Northern Catalonia. Several mayors are mobilizing to ask Isla to make him give in, like the Northern Catalan party Unitat Catalana, as well as Junts, ERC, and the CUP; but now his predecessors in office have also asked for it. The previous delegates have made public a letter in which they demand that Isla dismiss Person. In a document, to which ARA has had access, all of Person's living predecessors criticize him for the "arrogance and ignorance" he displays, in their opinion, and warn that he puts "at risk the credibility gained over the last twenty years" by the institution.

Catalonia is a great godfather factory. Our R&D is our grandparents. We have a nursery where the winter of life grows. From Maria Branyas, who at 117 became the oldest person on earth, to Sheriff Josep Vallverdú, who is already approaching 102. Piñau-pinyau.

The director general of the Catalan government in Perpignan, Christopher Person (Cervera, 1992), has sparked unrest in Northern Catalonia. This is because on Thursday, in a committee meeting in the Parliament, he denied the use of Northern Catalonia as a territory, even though he is its delegate, and refused to use this name or even that of Roussillon. The mayor of Los Baños and El Palaldà, Maria Costa, informed ARA that she is promoting a joint letter with other Northern Catalan mayors to the president of the Catalan government, Salvador Illa, calling for Person's dismissal. For now, she says, she has "a dozen" mayors on the same page. The Northern Catalan party, Unity Catalana, has also called for his resignation, as have Junts, ERC, and the CUP. And the rejection has also reached the Elna City Council, according to ARA, which is now Sí al País Catalana.

Years pass, but the tactics are repeated. Through the same winding roads where Catalan smugglers once smuggled tobacco, food, and even people, a criminal group of French smugglers smuggled vulnerable migrants recently arrived in Catalonia. They sought secondary, narrow, and untraveled roads, and the price per crossing ranged from 150 to 300 euros. A price that French authorities have admitted was low, and which they attribute to fierce competition between clans. The starting point was Catalonia. The destination, Northern Catalonia. Specifically, Perpignan, where they were offered alternative routes to reach, for example, Germany.