Catalonia commemorates a Diada marked by the defense of Catalan

The ruling on Catalan in education by the High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC), announced just on the eve of the Diada, a circumstance that is neither trivial nor has gone unnoticed, has paved the way for this 11th of September to be marked precisely by the defense of the Catalan language, especially in education, and will surely mark the pronouncements and demands of the Catalan political parties and entities that usually actively participate in the events of this festivity.

This court ruling, which annuls a large part of the Catalan government's 2024 decree that protected Catalan as the language of instruction in schools, already drew public response yesterday from the Socialist government and most parliamentary parties, except for the PP and Vox. President Salvador Illa, who shortly afterward announced an appeal against this decision, also dedicated space to it in his institutional statement issued last night on the occasion of the Diada, in which he reaffirmed his commitment to the defense of Catalan culture and language.

Illa argued that Catalan "must continue to be the inclusive, unique, and transversal language of the country," because "in a global society like ours, Catalan enriches and contributes," he asserted. As a sign of his commitment to this matter, the head of the Government highlighted the "great milestone" that, in his opinion, the signing of the National Pact for Language represents, which is already being implemented, he reported. Despite the magnitude of the challenge posed by improving the language's social use rates—and also achieving its official language status in the EU, alongside Basque and Galician—the president expressed confidence in achieving it.

The fact that the ruling comes on the eve of the Diada has not gone unnoticed.

The ruling by the High Court of Justice (TSJC) had been expected for months, and it was feared that it would be unfavorable, as it ultimately proved to be, but the ruling goes beyond what the most optimistic expected. The court states that Spanish must be the vehicular language and that the "regional language" can be the "center of gravity" of teaching as long as it "does not exclude or relegate" Spanish. Furthermore, it considers that co-official status "is governed by a pattern of balance and equality between languages" and that none of these principles are reflected in the law approved in 2024 by the majority of the Catalan Parliament.

According to its ruling, the approved decree "does not guarantee the effective vehicularity of Castilian and goes against constitutional and statutory balance," and leaves Catalan the possibility of exercising "a backbone position" as long as the "real vehicularity" of the Castilian language is maintained.

Read also The TSJC annuls a large part of the decree that protected Catalan as the vehicular language in schools. Toni Muñoz

The harshness of the ruling will be reflected in the streets this Thursday, during the traditional pro-independence demonstration scheduled in three cities: Barcelona, ​​Girona, and Tortosa. Several leaders of the organizing associations, including the Catalan National Assembly (ANC), expressed this yesterday. In a statement issued this Wednesday, the ANC emphasized that the High Court of Justice (TSJC) "has once again attacked the Catalan language in schools and violated linguistic rights" and that this is a new step in the Spanish state's judicial offensive to dismantle Catalan schools, literally. Therefore, they urged the Catalan government and Parliament to disobey the ruling and confront the High Court of Justice (TSJC) with "institutional disobedience."

Associations such as Plataforma per la Llengua, which is participating in many of the institutional events scheduled for this Thursday, including the floral offering at the Rafael Casanova monument and the Government's institutional event at the Teatre Nacional, announced yesterday an appeal against a ruling that "violates the rights of Catalan speakers and breaks the consensus in Catalonia regarding Catalan as the language of social cohesion."

The majority of the parliamentary arc, except for the PP and Vox, censure the court's decision.

Among the Catalan parties, except for the PP and Vox, all have expressed their opposition to the ruling and will do so again this Thursday. ERC lamented yesterday that "the judges continue to engage in politics, violating all pedagogical criteria." Junts criticized the court for its "new frontal attack on Catalan" but kept their eyes on the Catalan government, which they claim they have been questioning for months to determine what it would do in this situation. The Comuns (Communists) yesterday lamented the "attack on the Catalan school model" represented by the court ruling but called for a "unitary" response. And the CUP (Cup) called it a "political attack" on the language.

The PP and Vox, on the other hand, celebrated the ruling. The PP warned yesterday that "promoting the use of Catalan cannot be done by imposing and attacking another language," and the far-right party boasted that "Salvador Illa and his associates, who only know how to repress and pit us against each other, lose, and freedom, the defense of our languages, and common sense win."