Vox brings one of its deputies to the European Parliament as an expert to question linguistic immersion in Catalonia

The Green, Socialist and Democrat groups and La Izquierda are not going to participate in this public hearing in total rejection of the way that President Montserrat has of organizing this institutional act, marked once again by the violation of the rules of procedure of the European Parliament . Since 2017, we have been denouncing the manipulation of this committee, chaired by Montserrat to shamelessly serve the interests of the PP, Vox and Ciudadanos on Spanish issues”, Danish MEP Margrete Auken has expressed on behalf of the three groups, who has criticized that three experts were proposed by the PPE and one by ECR, the group of which Vox is a part.

The extreme right’s proposal was Manuel Acosta Elías, who is a Vox deputy in Parliament, as progressive groups have criticized. “First of all, as the suitability of my person as an expert has been questioned, I would like to remind you that I am a doctor in Philology, a graduate in Geography and History, a master’s degree in Hispanic Literature, a higher level professor of Catalan, for 25 years I have practiced I teach secondary and high school, and, as if that were not enough, I am the father of six children, I know something about children, about education. What I am not an expert in is rudeness and the lack of respect that the socialists, the greens and the others have staged here, I don’t even want to talk about ”, he said at the beginning of his speech.

“We live in Catalonia where 55% of the population have Spanish as their mother tongue. We find ourselves in a context of diglossia, that is, the coexistence of two languages ​​in which one of them, Catalan, has a clear preference as an institutional, cultural, prestigious, and official language, compared to another, which is Spanish, which is relegated to inferior communicative situations of orality and familiarity. The situation of diglossia as an inferior language that the regional government has imposed can be seen in the prohibition of labeling shops in Catalan under penalty of a fine, the use of Catalan in official documents, in the broadcast exclusively in Catalan on public television and radio , and in the educational system, based on monolingualism in Catalan. Spanish or Castilian is a minority language in Catalonia while Catalan is a minority language in the whole of Spain, which is not a minority one”, said Acosta, who has advocated “applying an educational 155” to the Generalitat de Catalunya.

“The nationalist will to power has turned the Catalan language into an ideological artifact: a symbol of national identity. Expressing oneself in Spanish is frowned upon —it is taboo— in spaces controlled by nationalists (institutional, media and cultural), where linguistic apartheid is applied against Spanish. Those who break the taboo are not Catalan and suffer different forms of discrimination, in some cases leading to hatred and violence. We are living, then, in a situation of identity regression opposed to the democratic order of free citizens, bearers of human rights, in the common civil space”, expressed another of the interveners, Jesús Rul.

Another of the experts, proposed by the PP, the professor of Applied Economics at the University of Barcelona (UB) Jorge Calero has assured that “the only Spanish there is is the one that is spoken marginally in the patio”, despite the fact that, In his opinion, they try to “eliminate” by controlling what “children say” during recess.

Faced with the reproach she has received from progressive forces, Montserrat has defended herself that she made proposals to “ensure that there was a political, geopolitical and gender balance to ensure the composition of this panel.” The MEP Maite Pagazaurtundúa has also come out in her defense, who has accused the socialists, greens and left of “filibustering”. “They had the opportunity to have experts, they gave up having that possibility and at the same time they contested the result. The two things are contradictory. They preferred to play the victims and the offended ”, said the parliamentarian for Ciudadanos, who was supported by the spokesperson in Parliament, Carlos Carrizosa.

Vox MEP Jorge Buxadé has pointed out that Spanish suffers “relentless persecution” in Catalonia and that a “cultural cancellation” is taking place: “What the authorities [catalanas] They have been perpetrating for 40 years is an erased attempt at Spanishness in the region”, added the far-right parliamentarian.

It is not the first time that PP, Ciudadanos and Vox have brought linguistic immersion in Catalonia to the European Parliament, which even has a mission to Catalonia scheduled to analyze the matter. Nor is it the first time that progressive forces have accused the right and, specifically, Montserrat of using the Petitions Commission for their partisan interests in Spain. Already in 2021 they sent a protest to the presidency of the Eurochamber, but this Tuesday the tone has risen with the departure of all the representatives of the three groups that were present – those of PSOE, Podemos and IU have not even come to the room- .

In addition, the independentistas have demanded the resignation of Montserrat to continue leading that commission. “If you still have a modicum of respect for this house or you still have a modicum of political decency, what you should do today is resign,” said ERC MEP Diana Riba. “Montserrat has systematically used the Petitions Committee as an instrument to carry out Spanish and Spanishist politics,” Clara Ponsatí denounced on her behalf.