The Generalitat Valenciana stirred up the already overcome linguistic conflict yesterday to assure that it will not tolerate “not one more attack on the language, culture and history of the Valencian Community”. This is the reading by the Council of the admission to the Congress of Deputies of the use of the co-official languages ??of the State, the result of the negotiation between ERC and Junts with the PSOE. In her parliament, the president of the Congress, Francina Armengol, mentioned Catalan, Basque and Galician, but the Council blames her for omitting “el Valencian”, the name of the Catalan variant spoken in the Valencian Community.
“We demand respect for the Valencian Community and that our language has the same official status as the rest of the State’s co-official languages”, read yesterday the second vice-president of the Council, Susana Camarero. The leader also referred to the recognition that Valencian has, “just like Castilian”, in article 6 of the Statute of Autonomy and also in article 3 of the Constitution.
In the absence of the head of the Council, Carlos Mazón, Camarero was accompanied by the spokeswoman, Ruth Merino, as well as by the councilors Elisa Núñez and Salomé Pradas, who had already criticized Pedro Sánchez for ignoring the Valencian in his parliament of on Tuesday in front of the Socialist deputies in the Lower House. “I hope that this disregard and disdain towards the own language and identity of the Valencian Community will be rectified”, the head of Environment had commented on her social networks.
Yesterday’s was an institutional statement – without questions from journalists and in Valencian – in which Camarero asked for “respect” from the acting president of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, and the new president of Congress, Francina Armengol: “What is respect our history and our centuries-old culture and language, as an essential part of the plural wealth of Spain”. The Council thus aimed at linguistic segregation, moving away from the consensus achieved with the creation of the Valencian Language Academy (AVL) and agitating a conflict that experienced intense episodes decades before.
In the manifesto, the Council – made up of PP and Vox – describes the agreement on the co-official languages ??as “nefarious” and insists that “it will not allow another attack or be a bargaining chip for those who want to confront Spain”. Likewise, Camarero said that in the next plenary session in September, the Council will approve a new “institutional declaration in defense of the Valencian”.
The offensive was completed with the registration by the PPCV of a non-law proposal in the Courts demanding “respect and equal treatment for the Valencian”. Measures that contrast with proposals such as the one launched by the new Minister of Education, who will review the multilingualism law in force in Valencian classrooms and is in favor of strengthening the exemption of Valencian in Spanish-speaking areas.
