In the end, the Govern has given in to pressure by Més per Mallorca and Més per Menorca, as well as their related organizations, such as education unions and pro-Catalan entities. Spanish will be removed from the Education Law to be approved today as the language of instruction in the Balearic Islands. In a joint statement, the parties of the Pact announced yesterday the suppression of the Castilian language and they commited to providing autonomy to the educational centres to elaborate their linguistic program. In reality, the articles that refer to the two linguas francas are eliminated and there will be a return to the decree of minimums, which demands a minimum of 50% of teaching in Catalan and the rest is left in the hands of each educational centre.
The inclusion of Castilian as a lingua franca was introduced by the Govern, specifically the Minister of Education Martí March, in order to obtain a positive abstention from the PP on the Education Law. There is also fear of the Supreme Court ruling that has ordered Catalonia to teach 25% of classes in Spanish.
However, in the last week, education unions such as Stei, UOB or Alternativa, Catalan language organisations and even the youth of Més had raised their voices against the education law. For this reason, and in view of the fact that the PP announced that it would vote against the linguistic part of the Education Law, the Pact decided to remove Spanish as a lingua franca.
Més and El Pi asked March that, in view of the lack of consensus with the PP, to return to the minimum decree
Més per Mallorca found it difficult to vote for a law that included Castilian as a language of instruction. Their grassroots and like-minded organisations were mobilising and the nationalists knew that voting in favour would have consequences for them. For this reason, with the necessary support of Més per Menorca, they have pushed for rectification. Lluís Apesteguia, coordinator of Més, said yesterday that “this is a law that needed great consensus, and we knew that this meant giving in”. However, Apesteguia blamed the PP for breaking this consensus, and for this reason the there has been a return to the original text, giving priority to the decree of minimums agreed by a PP government. The leader of Més admitted that with the suppression of Castilian as a lingua franca, many sectors of his party “feel more comfortable”. It was the first time that Apesteguia had appeared in Parliament since he won the Més primaries and became the party’s coordinator. The Nationalists had a meeting of their executive yesterday, and if this change had not taken place, it is likely that they would have withdrawn their support for the Education Law.
Meeting with Martí March, Minister of Education
Last Friday, Més per Mallorca, Més per Menorca and El Pi met with the Minister of Education, Martí March. In this meeting they summoned him to have a firm agreement that the PP would vote in favor or would make a positive abstention. In the absence of this agreement, they demanded March to return to the original text agreed in Consell de Govern and which did not include any lingua franca but applied the decree of a minimum 50% in Catalan and the autonomy for schools to carry out their linguistic program for the rest of the teaching subjects.
Carles Bona, deputy of the PSIB, also blamed the PP for breaking the consensus and therefore, in view of the announcement of the Popular Party to vote against article 133 which deals with the linguistic part of the Education Law, it was decided to return to the original text. The PSOE was the party that wanted to join the Popular Party to achieve a law that is not modified every time the political color of the Government changes. As this was not possible, the socialists had to accept the demands of Més to approve the law today. Gloria Santiago (Podemos) also indicated that in this norm “we bet for the consensus” and, therefore, they accept the demand of their partners of Més.
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