The parties get stuck in the attempt to refloat the agreement for the Catalan

The pact for Catalan is becoming the impossible square of the circle after yesterday the PSC and En Comú Podem rejected the proposal designed by ERC and Junts to try to revive the consensus that for a few hours generated the reform of the Language Policy Law (LPL), presented on March 24.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
20 May 2022 Friday 00:35
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The parties get stuck in the attempt to refloat the agreement for the Catalan

The pact for Catalan is becoming the impossible square of the circle after yesterday the PSC and En Comú Podem rejected the proposal designed by ERC and Junts to try to revive the consensus that for a few hours generated the reform of the Language Policy Law (LPL), presented on March 24.

In a new day of marathon negotiations, this time four-way, in the ERC offices in Parliament, the groups concerned by the frustrated consensus of March tried to recover it around another legislative tool that was adequate to overcome the Court's ruling Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC), which requires the introduction of 25% of Spanish in the classroom.

The talks resumed shortly after the leader of the opposition, Salvador Illa, assured first thing in the morning that the submitted proposal, negotiated between Esquerra and Junts, did not satisfy him, nor did it satisfy the common people.

According to parliamentary sources, the alternative of the Govern parties was based on a new specific law for the protection of Catalan that supplied the original intention of the four to reform the LPL. But the problem was not the packaging, but the content of the proposal.

In it, an explicit rejection of the relevance of establishing linguistic percentages, as established by the TSJC, was expressed, and the reference to the right to receive an education in the official languages ​​and "in the official languages" (Spanish and Catalan) was excluded, as as did the initial reform of the LPL that Junts ended up rejecting.

The alternative made the acceptance of socialists and common people impossible and was along the same lines as the decree prepared by the Government, on which President Pere Aragonès assured yesterday that he did not rule out approving it in an extraordinary Executiu Council today.

“We don't see it. We are where we were, in the agreement we reached, where there is a point of consensus in Catalan society”, rejected Illa. In fact, the Socialists argued yesterday that the approach was unacceptable because it means "challenging" the TSJC, while the commons lamented the "unilateral" attitude of the Govern's partners.

After the 24-hour ultimatum that the PSC and the commons gave on Tuesday to reach an agreement expired, those of Illa yesterday insisted on the will to speed up any possibility of an agreement, but the meetings in the Catalan Chamber ended without incident. Parliamentary sources pointed out that the traffic jam will require an intervention at the highest level, between Aragonès, who followed the course of the contacts despite his trip to Brussels, and the PSC and common leaders.

The parties continue to negotiate, but time is a handicap. The term of the TSJC to comply with its order expires on May 31, but yesterday the court gave a new wake-up call allowing the appearance of a parent in the request for forced execution of the sentence on the application of 25% of Spanish.


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