One hour and forty-five minutes into the third meeting of the dialogue table between the governments of Spain and Catalonia, this Wednesday in Moncloa, two substantive agreements have been reached to overcome the judicialization of the political conflict and to protect and promote the Catalan language. Some agreements, highlighted the Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, "that respond to a broad and transversal majority of Catalan society and that leave behind the blocs that seemed irreconcilable a short time ago".
"Today we abandon monologues and the attempt to impose the other, and embrace agreements and dialogue, as a way of doing useful politics," Bolaños stressed. Shortly after, the Minister of the Presidency, Laura Vilagrà, underlined that the first concrete agreements arose from this meeting to overcome the judicialization of Catalan politics and overcome the political conflict. And she has also stressed that the political solution requires the construction of a large majority.
Two documents thus emerge today from this negotiating table The "Agreement for the protection and promotion of the Catalan language" makes a clear and concrete commitment both to shield the teaching of Catalan in education and to promote its use and projection. In this area, the Spanish Government will ask the European Parliament for Catalan to be the language of use in the plenary session and will provide the necessary funding to make it so. Likewise, in this legislature reforms will be made in Congress and the Senate so that senators and deputies can speak in Catalan from the chambers.
The signed agreement also makes a long defense of the law approved this year in Parliament on the use and learning of official languages in education, and it is recalled that "Catalan must continue to be the language normally used as vehicular".
Regarding the agreement to overcome the judicialization and reinforce the guarantees of the dialogue, Bolaños has highlighted “the need to put an end to the judicialization of politics. And this through three principles, which the minister has listed. In the first place, "political and institutional activity must be carried out within the current democratic order." Therefore, he assured, overcoming judicialization must come in two ways: on the one hand, that the eventual improvement of the regulatory framework must be produced through dialogue and agreement, and on the other, that "it is renounced to actions that take politics out of the rules of the democratic game”.
The second principle is that these agreements must be representative of broad and transversal majorities of Catalan society. That is to say, that they not only respond to the demands of the pro-independence majority in Catalonia. "Never again the sterile confrontation between a part of Catalonia that tries to impose its postulates on another part of Catalonia", warned Bolaños. And the third principle of the agreement, he explained, is that "public institutions must preserve the general interest at all times and adopt the maximum guarantees, especially when their actions affect the assets or the situation of people".
Despite the lack of specificity of the sealed commitments, beyond their generic postulates, in Moncloa they highlight that "every word of the agreement costs work". And that the dialogue between the two governments continues. "The fact that we continue to sit down is good news," stress government sources.
Regarding the agreement for the protection and promotion of the Catalan language, Bolaños stressed that it is "an obligation" of the Government of Spain. And it contains three strategic lines. The first, in the educational field. "We reaffirm our full commitment to the full oral and written command of Catalan and Spanish for all students who finish their school years in Catalonia", said Bolaños. "We also recognize the autonomy of each educational center to reinforce one or another language depending on the social and linguistic reality of its environment", added the minister.
Bolaños has highlighted "the enormous importance" that in his opinion has the law on the use and learning of co-official languages in non-university education that was approved by the Parliament of Catalonia, "with a consensus of over 80% of the deputies" . “It is a very good example of a transversal, very broad and very majority agreement”, he highlighted. This Catalan norm, he has assured, "is perfectly in line with the Constitution and the statutory framework." In addition, Bolaños has highlighted that the Government will also promote Catalan in legislation and institutions, specifically in the Senate and in the European Parliament.
