Victor Mondelo Barcelona

Barcelona

Updated Sunday, February 18, 2024-02:01

  • Language The PSOE joins the independentists to try to boycott the EU report on discrimination against Spanish in Catalonia

The Catalan independence movement, led by the Government of the Generalitat, is dedicating notable efforts to try to delegitimize the European Parliament report that calls for granting "the same treatment for Spanish and Catalan as the vehicular language of education" in schools. of Catalonia, that is, it detonates the foundations of linguistic immersion. However, the secessionists maneuvered until the last second so that the document they now demonize would endorse the monolingual educational model and thus obtain the support of the EU for their nationalist linguistic postulates.

According to sources from the mission of European MEPs who went to Catalonia last December to investigate the effects of the linguistic immersion system, the Catalan independentists, led by the ERC representative,

Diana Riba

, managed to inoculate their arguments in the only one of the official members of the delegation who did not belong to the liberal, conservative or popular group. The Italian

Maria Angela Danzi

, representative of the populist Five Star Movement, was open to the suggestions of the Catalan secessionist parliamentarian, who came to the mission as a companion and, therefore, could not participate directly in the writing of the report.

EL MUNDO has had access to the draft of the document that includes all the proposals that Danzi requested to include and which, for the most part, were rejected, as they completely collided with the critical spirit against immersion that the text would end up distilling.

Among the comments proposed by the Italian MEP, and included in that preliminary document dated January 30, one stands out in which she requested that the report "remember that establishing percentages or forcing at least one subject to be taught in Spanish is not the solution." to fill learning gaps. With this annotation, the independentists tried through Danzi to get the European Parliament to oppose the content of the ruling of the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) that establishes 25% of subjects in Spanish in all schools in Catalonia.

"Annul" the 25% ruling

Also among the rejected proposals of the Italian MEP was the modification of a key assertion in the report. Danzi requested that the document maintain that Decree Law 6/2022 and Law 8/2022 approved by the Catalan Parliament "annul" the application of the TSJC ruling. The report finally reflected that the decree of the Generalitat and the law approved by the secessionists and the PSC "prevent" the application of the ruling. A substantial nuance, because it only reflects that the ruling cannot be applied until the Constitutional Court rules on the legality of the two legal devices designed to maintain immersion, but does not accept that it in any way annuls the TSJC ruling.

In addition, Danzi requested that the last recommendation of the report be dispensed with, which calls for sending it "to the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia and the Spanish Constitutional Court pending a ruling."

Catalan "vehicular"

The Italian also unsuccessfully demanded that the report include that "the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia establishes that Catalan is the language normally used as a vehicle in education and has been validated by the Constitutional Court"; stating that the study of immersion "is the exclusive responsibility of Spain [...] and, therefore, the Petitions Committee of the European Parliament cannot take any further action and all related petitions must be closed" or stating that "the educational model offers complete linguistic learning to all students with the aim of achieving full knowledge of Catalan and Spanish."

Furthermore, Danzi unsuccessfully demanded to eliminate from one of the recommendations the text that "asks the competent regional and national authorities to ensure that children are not discriminated against" or the one that "suggests that the Generalitat of Catalonia improve communication and trust in order to establish a constructive dialogue with the affected families" for demanding more Spanish in court.

The ally of the Catalan independence movement also demanded to delete from the report the allusion that ended up calling the independence demonstrations that harassed the members of the European mission "offensive" and the part of the text in which it is stated that "the presence of police to guarantee the safety of the members of the delegation.