The electoral call does not prevent the Government of the Generalitat of Catalonia from continuing with the plans it had on the table. Yesterday it was the Department of Culture that announced two new aid items for the Catalan language, which affect the years 2024 and 2025.
Minister Natàlia Garriga appeared before the press with the Secretary General of Linguistic Policy, Xavier Vila, to underline her Ministry’s commitment to the Catalan language, especially with regard to the Pacte per la Llengua. It can be assumed that, whatever the electoral result, the Pacte, of which “only some fringes remain to be closed”, will continue with the government that emerges from the polls, since it has the support of 80% of the Parliament.
But the counselor announced two relevant developments. The first, which comes into effect today, is a sum of 600,000 euros for cultural publications written entirely in Catalan or Occitan, with a minimum history of five years. The money is intended for editing and distribution, to help consolidate these publications. The recipients are 15 capitals, and the amount will be linked to the budget of each of them.
The second ad is intended for influencers. The councilor confessed that they had been studying how to implement this aid for a long time and, finally, they opted for a scholarship system. Thus, the 312,000 euros from this item will be used to award 24 scholarships, intended for the production of videos. The objective is to “professionalize the work of influencers in Catalan,” stated Garriga.
According to the department, this is an unprecedented scholarship in the world, “because dominant languages ??do not need aid, as an intermediate and minority language such as the Catalan language does,” said Vila.
The department’s budget for 2024 is €477 million, 1.5% of the general budget. The numbers have not increased to €566 million, which would have represented 1.7% of the total, on the way to 2%, because the Generalitat’s budgets were not approved and they are working with the extended ones.