The Parliament approves the Catalan law under the shadow of the Constitutional

A large majority of the chamber -102 of 135 deputies and one abstention- managed to renew this Wednesday the linguistic pact that governs the classrooms of Catalonia. Urged by the ruling of the TSJC, the Parliament has approved the new law on the use and learning of official languages ​​in non-university education agreed between PSC, ERC, Junts and ‘commons’ between harsh attacks from Vox, Cs and PPC, willing to wage the legal battle in the constitutional Court.

The four-way agreement establishes Catalan as the vehicular language and guarantees Spanish as the curricular and educational language, without setting percentages and adjusting to the sociolinguistic reality of each center, which must present its linguistic projects to the Department of Education for validation. All this, as a way to comply with the ruling of the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) that requires that 25% of the classes be in Spanish and after the plácet of the Consell de Garanties Estatutàries to the draft.

The dissolution of blocs, propelled by an alliance between independentists, socialists and ‘commons’, has provoked the resounding reproaches of Vox, Cs and PPC to the PSC for agreeing with the sovereigntism to shield a “forced” language immersion with “hispanophobes” as allies.

“[Francisco] Franco did a disservice to Castilian in Catalonia by imposing it and crushing Catalan, and now you are doing it to Catalan, radically imposing it and trying to eradicate Castilian from the institutions”, the leader of Cs has snapped, Carlos Carrizosadelving into the collaboration of the PSC and En Comú Podem in the operation, and even comparing some statements by the socialist spokesperson Alicia Romero in defense of the vehicularity of Catalan with the “stale catechism” of the former president Quim Torra.

“How is it possible that they join the most rancid nationalism?” Asked the leader of the PPC, Alexander Fernandez, to partners in the central government. And, like Carrizosa, he has cited the former president Jordi Pujol to assert that this new law is a “betrayal” that ends the pact forged 40 years ago. Fernández has insisted that this rule does Catalan no favors, criticizing that the Government focuses on this law instead of ensuring greater social use of the language without “disparaging” Castilian Spanish.

Apart from the resources to the Constitutional, the three parties launch the lawsuits against the ‘conseller’ Josep Gonzalez Cambray, and senior officials from the Department of Education. “We do not like to present complaints, but we are obliged to do so,” inquired the spokesman for the extreme right, Joan Garriga, unleashing laughter from the hemicycle, to which he has responded by threatening prison sentences.

get out of the trench

The PSC deputy, Esther Niubo, negotiator of the law, has replied that “there is nothing unconstitutional, nor is the right to the teaching of Castilian denied” because this law “fits perfectly with the regulations and the ruling of the TC of 2010”. “I do not know if some of these parties perhaps want to go beyond the regulations and if some are concerned about the percentages, it does not correspond to a law to enter into this specification,” he insisted, asking Vox, Cs and PPC to be anchored in the ” permanent confrontation” generating “twitching” from the “trenches”.

Now, despite celebrating the agreement with independentistas and ‘comuns’, Niubó has disfigured the Government that, in the decree that accompanies this legislation, “has not preserved the spirit of the wording” because the rejection of the percentages is made explicit and disappears the mention of the curricular and educational use of Spanish.

“The immersion is not touched”, has defended, for its part, the parliamentarian of the purples Jessica Gonzalez. “Today we are debating the maintenance of some rights, of equal opportunities”, he snapped as he has made a closed defense of the text because, in his opinion, it shields immersion and protects teachers from the “attack of the judges”.

Abstention for hunger strike

A deputy of Junts, the negotiator of the law Francesc Ten, has abstained from the vote as a sign of “solidarity” with the activist Salvador Ribot, on a hunger strike for 13 days “in defense of Catalan in schools.” Ten has defended his party’s initial withdrawal from the March 24 agreement because he has said that he has made it possible to reach a “better” agreement “by consensus with the educational community.” “We have recovered the consensus that the country and the Catalan school deserve”, concluded the ERC deputy, Monica Palacin.

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The CUP continued with its total opposition to the law and charged Junts and ERC for “introducing bilingualism in the school”. parliamentarian Carlos Rivera He has asked the post-convergence if “this is the one of confrontation with the state and unilateralism that you promised” and, to the Republicans, if “this is the democratic conflict to defend country consensus”.

The president’ Pere Aragones He has asked for a turn to speak from the queue of the parliamentary groups to brandish “the responsibility to legislate.” “We do not abdicate our responsibility. Today we legislate so that the laws are approved by this Parliament and not by another instance,” he slipped, to finish off that “this is an agreement, also, for social cohesion, so that languages ​​are not a instrument of partisan attack because what fractures is not the language, but the lack of equity and poverty”. The leader of the opposition Salvador Islandhas affirmed that defending Castilian Spanish is not attacking Catalan and has reached out to Aragonès in the hope that this pact should be a “starting point, not an arrival point”.