The Meliana City Council, a municipality in the metropolitan area of ??Valencia with just over 10,000 inhabitants governed by the PP with an absolute majority, will teach Valencian classes following the regulations of the Royal Academy of Valencian Culture, the so-called Puig Standards, which defend that Valencian and Catalan are different languages.
A spelling that does not follow the linguistic criteria of the Valencian Academy of Language (AVL), entity which, according to the Statute of Autonomy of the Valencian Community, “is the regulatory institution of the Valencian language”. In fact, the Statute points out that “the linguistic regulations of the Valencian Language Academy will be mandatory in all public administrations of the Valencian Community”.
The PP has recently been distant and critical of the AVL but has not proposed contradicting the Statute, despite the fact that its Vox partners do advocate ending the Academy. In fact, the Department of Education – which has incorporated the powers of Linguistic Promotion – has offered the AVL a series of criteria to modify the Valencian used in the Administration, seeking formulas “closer to what is spoken on the street”; Yes, “continuing with the established regulatory framework.”
The spokesperson and first deputy mayor of Meliana, the popular Pedro Cuesta, confirmed to La Vanguardia the decision of the Consistory to offer these courses and justified it by the fact that “this is how the PP of Meliana carried it in the electoral program.” “We are fulfilling a point in our program, which our voters know and approve by placing their trust in us,” declared the former mayor of Meliana.
The PP governs with an absolute majority in a City Council in which Vox does not have municipal representation, so the measure cannot be interpreted as a yielding to pressure from the far-right formation. Cuesta is, in addition to first deputy mayor of Meliana, provincial deputy and vice president of Lo Rat Penat; The Presidency of the historic entity that, precisely, teaches non-normative Valencian courses, was in the race.
A few days ago, Meliana was in the news after the Government team asked the cultural magazine Espai Carraixet (free distribution) not to leave copies in municipal buildings. Meliana thus joined the list of councils that have canceled their subscriptions to magazines in Valencian such as Camacuc or Saó.
Asked about the courses, Cuesta defended that “in Meliana there are approximately a hundred members of Lo Rat Penat.” Therefore, the councilor argued, “we are responding to a demand from a large group of neighbors and fulfilling what we promised in the electoral campaign.”
In this sense, the Meliana councilor insisted that with its decision, the City Council is not seeking “any confrontation with the AVL, or with anyone; We just want to make known the Valencian of our homes, of our grandparents. We want to give the opportunity to get to know this Valencian, and we know that the course will be full of people who are curious and fond of the language.”
Cuesta indicated that, although Meliana is the first City Council to do so, there are “several municipalities” interested in following in its footsteps and teaching these classes with different regulations than those established by the AVL.
