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On May 12, more than 11,000 nurses opposed to access one of the 3,300 public squares convened by the Generalitat of Catalonia. An opposition that the Department of Health itself described as "historic" for the "many years" that these health professionals had been waiting for a call of such dimension.

However, the applicants were deprived of their right to be examined in Spanish. Only Catalan questionnaires were offered. And not by mistake: the Generalitat defends the imposition of this language on opponents.

"The evidence designed by the court is in Catalan because it is the language of the Administration of the Generalitat of Catalonia," admits the Catalan Institute of Health ( ICS ) - the public company of the Generalitat that manages health centers and hospitals of Catalonia- in a letter sent to the Parliament at the request of Citizens and to which THE WORLD has had access.

In the same document - lubricated by the Director of People and Professional Development of the ICS, Xavier Saballs -, the Generalitat maintains that the questions on the forms were written exclusively in Catalan "without prejudice to the language that each applicant can use in their responses ". A concession that the health official of the Generalitat recognizes as "irrelevant" because "the tests were defined in test format".

Citizens claimed a copy of the questionnaires designed for the opposition both in Spanish and Catalan, but the Department of Health only sent the exam models conducted in Catalan to the Parliament, for the simple reason that there were no copies in Spanish, as it has been able to corroborate this newspaper, that has had access to the complete file in which the tests raised to the opponents are attached. The four models used, as the Generalitat itself admits and defends, are written in Catalan.

Catalan exam model

This new case of linguistic imposition executed by the Generalitat of Catalonia is uncovered after one of the nurses who participated in the opposition on May 12 presented a formal complaint before the court's refusal to provide a copy in Spanish of the exam.

The events occurred at the Faculty of Economics of Barcelona , one of the centers authorized to carry out the opposition. This applicant - who prefers to preserve his identity - requested a test in Spanish for being his "vehicular language". Complaint that was neglected by the head of the classroom, who claimed "that he could not take the exam in Spanish, because the rules of the opposition contest explained that it would be only and exclusively in Catalan." An uncertain statement.

This extreme does not appear in the bases, which only require that one of the opposition's tests - not the main test - will consist in demonstrating the competence in that language in case the applicant does not have the C1 certificate of Catalan.

"Language discrimination"

The opponent sent a complaint to the secretary of the qualifying court, Carmen Martín Romero , in which he declared "violated the right to use any of the two official languages ​​of Catalonia" and recalled that "in the bases of the call is not named, explains or dictates that the exam will be only in Catalan ".

After having knowledge of what happened and the endorsement of the Generalitat to the exclusion of Castilian in the tests, Citizens denounces the "linguistic discrimination" carried out by the Department of Health, which chairs the ERC leader, Alba Vergés , and warns of which can lead to "the loss of talent for the Catalan healthcare system".

"We need the best professionals in the system," remarks the deputy of the orange training, Martín Barra , who sees determining "respect the language of preference" of the opponents so they can demonstrate their knowledge and skills to qualify for the places called.

The nurse who illuminated this example of cornering of the Castilian in the Catalan Public Administration plans to denounce the Generalitat in the coming weeks to understand that their linguistic rights were violated by the Department of Health and that the same circumstance could affect many of the 11,000 opponents who participated in the call.

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