Wert believes that the status of Spanish in Catalonia today is like that of Catalan during Franco dictatorship
While conversing with journalists in the hallways of Madrid’s parliament, Spain’s Minister of Education stated that "the use of Spanish as a foreign language" in Catalan schools is "akin to the treatment of Catalan in the past"
MadridLast Wednesday Minister of Education José Ignacio Wert hinted in the parliament’s hallways that the situation of the Spanish language in Catalonia today is similar to that of Catalan under Franco. Wert said so during a Q & A session, after replying to a question from CiU about the "real reasons" behind the challenge presented by the government of Mariano Rajoy to the school enrollment process in Catalonia.
Wert believes that "treating Spanish like a foreign language" is "comparable to the situation with Catalan in the past". He didn’t dare make this statement, however, in front of the cameras. The time limit during the main session cut short his last response to Convergència MP Martí Barberà, in which he addressed the situation of the Spanish language in Catalonia today. Upon leaving the chamber, a group of journalists asked him what he had meant to say before he ran out of time, at which point Wert made the comparison of the current situation with General Franco’s era. Nevertheless, he preferred not to make his statement publicly in front of the cameras.
Barberà accused the minister of trying to "destabilize" the Catalan school system by using "excuses" to "divide Catalan society". "If a repressive dictatorship couldn’t kill our language, do you really think that you will be able to?", replied the CiU MP. Within the chamber, Wert shielded himself behind the rulings of the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia and the Supreme Court, as well as Spain’s Constitutional Court, which ruled that "the inactivity and omission of responsibilities by the Catalan authorities make it necessary" to order that an additional subject be taught in Spanish in Catalan schools, in addition to the subject of Spanish language. According to Wert, "the fact that Catalan is the main language of instruction must be compatible with the non-exclusion of Spanish as a language of instruction, too". And he went on to say that forcing 25% of all lessons to be taught in Spanish is not, in any way, a form of segregation of Catalan, but, rather, "quite the opposite".
Language model shakes Spanish Parliament and Senate
This was the second consecutive day that the language model in Catalonia was being debated. On Tuesday afternoon, a vote on a bill submitted by the Catalan parliament requesting that the Catalan language becomes a requirement for justice department personnel in Catalonia turned into a battle of accusations between the PP (and UPyD) and the opposition parties on the subject of language immersion in Catalonia. At one point, PP MP and third vice-president of the chamber Dolors Montserrat accused the Catalan parliament of "totalitarianism" for requesting that judges in Catalonia understand Catalan. UPyD joined in and accused the Generalitat of practising "educational Franco-ism".
In the Senate, CiU spokesman Josep Lluís Cleries asked Spanish minister Wert if the goal of the Spanish government was to segregate students in Catalonia. The minister replied that "neither the courts nor the Spanish people believe that there is an attack on Catalan".
