Subscriptions to magazines in Catalan have multiplied by five one month after the ban on the five Catalan publications in the municipality of Borriana. The government of the municipality of the Valencian Community, made up of PP and Vox, decided to cancel the subscriptions to the magazines Camacuc, Cavall Fort and El Temps, as well as Enderrock and Llengua Nacional for "promoting Catalan separatism".
The social response to this decision has been to go from 200 monthly subscriptions that they used to receive to register up to a total of 1,000. The editors of the magazines celebrate this supportive response and assure that it has helped them to stop the drop in readership in recent years, according to RAC 1.
The president of the Association of Periodical Publications in Catalan, Germà Capdevila, appreciates the support in a very tough context for this type of magazine. "The presence of magazines in Catalan at newsstands has always been complicated because they have to compete with a stronger language like Spanish. That's why this reaction from people is so important."
The Councilor for Culture in the Borriana Town Hall, Jesús Albiol, from Vox, announced a month ago that he was canceling subscriptions to the five magazines in Catalan, which provoked a series of reactions against this decision. On the one hand, the publications themselves described it as "sad and worrying", and political formations such as Compromís expressed their concern as it was "censorship in culture". Salvador Illa, leader of the PSC, called this decision "intolerable" and called on Feijóo to "disavow" the Vox councilor.
However, it was the residents of the municipality who encouraged the return of the magazines to the Municipal Library of Borriana. The demonstrations and protests against the decision to cancel the subscriptions made the municipal government rectify. The Association of Periodical Publications in Catalan expressed its "satisfaction" with the decision, although it warned that "we must not lower our guard". They also announced that they are working on a massive subscription campaign starting in September.
