The controversy over the use and learning of Catalan and Spanish in the classroom follows a path that starts from Catalonia to Andalusia, passing through Madrid.
Only a few hours before the Andalusian electoral campaign officially began, the president of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, harshly attacked the president of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, for not stopping the "linguistic apartheid" that, in his opinion, the Government of the Generalitat in Catalan classrooms with its decree law that explicitly refuses to apply the percentages set by the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC).
Feijóo's words yesterday on Onda Cero are one more step in the complaint that he had already been launching in recent days, assuring that in Catalonia "the law is not followed, the rights of children in schools are not respected", nor " the right of their parents”, and accusing the central Executive of “looking the other way” instead of appealing the decree before the Constitutional Court (TC) to prevent it from coming into force.
Faced with this inaction, Feijóo said he was obliged to file an appeal (before the TC) "to protect one of the two co-official languages in the Catalan community."
Despite the vituperation, from the Government they avoid adding fuel to the fire, although the discomfort caused by the Government's decree law, from which the PSC has distanced itself from considering that it is a "challenge" to the TSJC, shines through. That is why each minister who speaks on this matter insists on asking for the sentence to be carried out and values the agreement between ERC, Junts, PSC and En Comú Podem, which forged a new law on the use and teaching of the official languages in Catalunya, which will be approved next week in Parliament.
The Government does not intend to present any appeal on the law to be approved or on the decree law of the Government, which has the endorsement of the purple part of the Executive, the commons. They will let the right wing act in this way and they trust that the judicial pronouncements will be favorable because they must be in accordance with the Lomloe umbrella, the Education Law approved in 2020 by the coalition government, instead of the Lomce, the PP law on which the rulings on 25% are based.
The central government has maintained contacts with the Generalitat regarding both legislative initiatives and they trust that there will be an agreement so that Catalonia ends up complying with the ruling on 25% of Spanish. In fact, the minister spokesperson Isabel Rodríguez, assured yesterday that instead of if any recourse is considered, the central Executive is making "an unprecedented effort, in the field of relations between public administrations, to reach agreements and not generate conflicts".
Meanwhile, Feijóo's words compete in the campaign with those of the far right, which has been demanding a "permanent 155" in Catalonia, and those of Citizens when he accuses the Minister of Education, Josep Gonzàlez-Cambray, of acting like a "thug" .
The most indignant responses to the PP leader's accusations came from President Pere Aragonès, and from the PSC leader, Salvador Illa. The first branded Feijóo's words of "unacceptable political and moral baseness" for "banalizing the pain, deaths and ignominy that apartheid brought." In addition, the head of the Government regretted that Feijóo expressed himself in this way "to win four votes."
For her part, Illa assured from San Fernando (Cádiz) that she felt “disappointed” by the language, style and confrontational approach” of the PP leader, who also attacked the PSC for its “winks of non-compliance” and “looking for loopholes legal so that the law is not complied with.”
In the midst of this struggle with an electoral tint, Cambray declared yesterday on Catalunya Ràdio that he does not see the risk of disqualification for the directors of the centers for the management of the 25% sentence, not even for him. He said it while the teachers demonstrated at the gates of the station on their third day of strike for the other problem that plagues Catalan education: job insecurity.
