No surprises. The decree law of the Government that sets the criteria for the linguistic projects of educational centers, in which any numerical parameter or percentages for the use of the official languages is rejected, has been approved by the Parliament this Wednesday thanks to the votes of En Comú Podem. In this way, the decree has gone ahead with less support than the law from which it emanates, the law on the use and learning of official languages in the non-university sphere, which had a broad consensus thanks to the PSC's support.
The approval of the decree was planned since the new norm was agreed upon, which establishes the use of Catalan as the vehicular language, and Castilian as the language "of curricular use" in the Catalan school. This decree was an effort by Junts, which set it as a condition to return to the consensus that was lowered in March, hours after signing the original agreement to reform the Language Policy Law. And the commons agreed to approve it in the Catalan Chamber if Junts finally approved the new law that was agreed at the end of May among the four parliamentary groups (ERC, Junts, PSC and En Comú Podem).
The decree approved today, unlike the law agreed upon by the four groups, obviates the Castilian of these linguistic projects, sets the "non-application" of percentages in the classrooms and attributes to the Ministry of Education the power to validate the linguistic projects of the centers. In fact, the partners of the Government maintain that this decree is designed so that the Minister of the branch, Josep Gonzàlez-Cambray, assumes the responsibility of validating the linguistic projects and shields the directors and teachers of the educational centers against "judicial interference ”, in reference to the judgments of the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) that establish at least 25% of Spanish in the classrooms.
The decree has been approved by 71 votes in favor (ERC, Junts and En Comú Podem) and 60 votes against (PSC, CUP, Vox, Ciudadanos and PPC). In addition, the decree was validated without the possibility of processing it as a bill going ahead.
But among the opponents of the decree, two lines of argument have been seen, the one put forward by the PSC, critical of the Government's intention to go beyond the law with an unnecessary affront to the courts, and the right-wing groups, which harshly attacked against the Catalan Executive for its stubbornness in wanting to expressly fail to comply with a court ruling and make language a throwing weapon. And on the other hand, the one exposed by the CUP, which accused the Government and in particular the ERC, of "paving the way for the togas".
The anti-capitalist deputy Nogay Ndiaye has charged against the Government for having made a decree "in the offices", which "has only had the consensus of some political parties, without counting on the educational community at all". And she has warned that the rule "allows the responsibility to fall back on the educational centers" because "it binds the application of the sentence in the project of each center".
Despite the fact that the decree was unanimously endorsed by the Consell de Garanties Estatutàries (CGE), like the law, the socialists have not wanted to support a decree that in their opinion represents an "unnecessary challenge" to the courts when explicitly states that non-application of percentages for which the TSJC bets. “Was it necessary when it is a challenge that fuels the conflict?”, questioned the deputy Esther Niubó in the parliamentary debate. "It is an absurd political interference" because "what educational planning does not consist of numerical parameters, such as hours?", She has questioned.
On the other hand, the commons have defended this project against the "constant attacks that do not harm politics, but rather the students and teachers." The deputy Jess González has valued that the decree represents "one more step" in the shielding of Catalan in the centers, and has justified the favorable vote to the norm of her group to act "responsibly". However, she has emphasized that it is the Catalan law approved by the four groups that "puts black on white" in the use and learning of the official languages in Catalonia.
Junts has justified the need for the tool approved today to "defend Catalan as a state language", which "will only be truly shielded when we are an independent state", commented the deputy Anna Erra. And from ERC, the parliamentarian Mónica Palacín, celebrated the consensus generated by the law, something that she would have liked to repeat in the decree, and highlighted the need to protect the directors of the centers against the ruling of the TSJC. "The Government could not sit idly by and will assume responsibility," she assessed. "Leave the school alone, the students and the teachers," she demanded from the right-wing parties.
The decree has been approved after the TSJC urged again, last week, Minister Cambray to issue instructions to comply with the sentence of 25% of classes in Spanish. He did so in response to an appeal from the Government to the order that the court issued in early May, when the new regulatory framework was not yet in force.
