The pact of the extreme right of the PP and VOX in the Valencian Country that will replace the government of the Botánico has been agreed with two ties that make it unworthy: the denial of sexist violence and the crusade against the Catalan language. On the first issue, it only has to be said that the head of the list of the far-right formation has resigned from being part of the government to be sentenced for assaulting his ex-partner, but his group has already announced that it will reward him by placing him as the head of the list in Congress in the July 23 elections. We have seen in recent months how the media right has attacked the coalition government because there were people convicted of terrorism on the Bildu lists, a serious mistake by the Basque independentist left that it rectified in time and, instead, we look, listen and read a resounding silence from this same media right with the fact that VOX has people convicted of sexist violence in its candidacies.
The other issue that worries about this pact of shame in the Valencian Country is the language. The person who will be president of the Autonomous Community, Carlos Mazón, from the PP, has already announced that the pact will mean eliminating the Office for Linguistic Rights and will put an end to any policy to promote Valencian and the equalization of the rights of Spanish and Catalan speakers in Valencia, Castelló and Alicante. Once again, the right wing places the language policies of progressive governments in the spotlight and has warned that it is also a warning for Catalonia. They are simply warning us that if they reach the state government we will return to the years of linguistic confrontation between ministers Wert or Méndez de Vigo and they will do so gesticulating even more because now they have the VOX Doberman to amplify these measures. The lost decade of the governments of Mariano Rajoy also meant the judicialization of education and linguistic rights with the sole objective of confronting and stressing the coexistence between our languages. On July 23 we could return to these times. Certainly, this judicialization process against our language did not imply any change in the linguistic immersion model of our country thanks to the strength of the educational community, the struggles in the street and the ideological transversality that defends the language, but it has prevented the advance because a lot of energy has been dedicated to stop the coup of the Spanish right.
We cannot be misled for a second. Let each other stop fooling around. That Junts and ERC stop competing with each other. That the PSC stop looking askance at the desired votes of Ciudadanos and that En Comú Podem work clearly for this plurinational Spain that we defend. We have to firmly defend the language and linguistic coexistence. We must empower the educational community, recover the demands in the streets and not be disgusted or afraid of great country pacts that defend Catalan and language immersion as the best tool to defend dual language proficiency in Catalonia.
The Spanish right advances with the hoaxes, the fake news and the informative manipulation of the ultra media, also in linguistic matters. Accompanying this Pact against the Valencian Country of the PP and VOX, I predict that we will see in the mornings of Telecinco and Antena3 news related to the “persecution” of Spanish promoted by the Botanical government and also by Catalonia. Against this we need firmness in the face of interference, a unanimous cry in defense of our rights and transversal political cohesion to avoid the cracks that the right-wing will want to open. And an important reflection: the most powerful tool that working people have is our vote. May the vote of July 23 also be a vote in defense of the language and linguistic coexistence. To vote for language is to vote for equal opportunities and social cohesion.
