The former Valencian president, Eduardo Zaplana, maintains that the Valencian Academy of Language, AVL, an entity he created in 1998, continues to be the best instrument to standardize Valencian and to maintain the philological consensus around the language. In a telephone conversation with La Vanguardia, Zaplana recalls that thanks to the AVL, not only was it possible to "pacify a conflict that was very present in society", but the debate on the Valencian language was removed "from the political sphere to confine it to the academic sphere ”. The Valencian institution, integrated into the Statute, defines Valencian as a "Romance language that is spoken in the Valencian Community" and in other geographies as well as in Catalonia or the Balearic Islands "where it receives the name of Catalan".
In recent times, voices from conservative sectors have once again questioned the validity of the Valencian Academy as a normative body for the Valencian language. This body was created when the PP depended on the Valencian Union in the institutions, and was approved unanimously in the Valencian Parliament, with the unanimous support of the media. At the head of the first Academy was the poet Xavier Casp and the second Ascención Figueres. Zaplana, who is facing trial in the Erial case in January, recalls "the innumerable meetings" he held with university academics "from all sectors, those who were in favor of the unity of Catalan and Valencian and those who were against, but in the end we reached a consensus that has allowed years of peace on the language issue. "My initial objective was not so much that they agree, but simply that they all sit at the same table to talk, and that was the beginning of success," he says.
The former Valencian president also stressed that “the initiative was mine and mine alone, nobody else's, neither Jordi Pujol nor José María Aznar; The one who had the problem and the one who wanted to solve it was me and I did it”. "Pujol, with whom I maintain a good relationship, what he did do was applaud the creation of the AVL," he adds. “In those days the PSOE did not collaborate, it did not know how to be in the process, and I had to work alone with a lot of people to create the AVL”, he comments.
The former president makes it clear that "now the difference is that the language problem is no longer on the streets, but it is in politics." And he warns that "it is not good to go back to discussing something that should be left to those who have the capacity to address it, which are academics." He also stresses that the Academy "does not say where Valencian should be taught, in what geographical areas, that depends on the Ministry of Education; some say they are ending the academy because they confuse things, who decides what is taught and where the Ministry is, is political, the Academy is a normative entity".
