Junts has designed a path to the European elections on June 9 that allows us to trace and guess a thread of continuity between the campaign for the Parliament elections on May 12, the electoral event without a doubt most important for the formation, and with the project of JxCat in the European elections of 2019. That last section includes the “internationalization of the Catalan cause”, which currently translates into working for the “national recognition” of Catalonia, as the post-convergents explain. One of the milestones that the party is pursuing in this area is for Catalan to be an official language in Europe and in its first act, yesterday in Barcelona, ??a giant canvas was displayed with the motto “Català, llengua d’Europa”.
“There are two nuclear issues for the national construction of Catalonia: The financial resources of the Generalitat, investments, and the other is the language,” detailed the Junts candidate, Toni Comín, in a press conference from the Press Club Brussels. Europe from the Belgian capital. “One of the most important challenges, apart from the social use of Catalan, which is very much so, is its full official status in the European Union (EU). “We are very serious about this issue,” said the MEP and former minister, who stressed that it is an “absolute priority” for his training and has asked the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, to get involved personally and for the Executive center makes “one last effort.” “Make this issue a top priority on your agenda,” the candidate demanded.
Comín has also alluded to the fact that the Sánchez Government needs JxCat in the Lower House. “It is an issue of highest priority on our agenda and therefore of highest priority on their agenda if they want to advance together with a force like ours,” said the independence leader, who wanted to make clear the “commitment to this battle.” in the next term” of your organization. “No matter how difficult this negotiation may be, the Government has sufficient diplomatic resources to achieve the objective. We want to accompany you. We have accompanied him these months. We have never gone this far, it is true, but we have not gone far enough,” continued the former minister, who pointed out that “there are issues that are closed between heads of Government.” “If you have to use that card, you will have to use it. That letter has to be used,” he concluded in reference to Sánchez.
With Spain’s rotating presidency of the EU Council, in the second half of 2023, the Government introduced this issue on the European agenda, after its pact with the post-convergents for the start of the legislature in the Congress of Deputies in August, and showed its willingness to assume the economic cost of the measure. Although the central Executive dedicated several diplomatic efforts to this that have been appreciated by Junts, they have not yet borne fruit. Spain was succeeded by Belgium at the head of the EU Council, but with the Belgian presidency it has not been possible for the moment either and the project remains stuck in a drawer for now and Moncloa points out that it could take years to materialize.
Another way for Catalan to be used in the European Parliament is for a majority of seven vice presidents of the Board to endorse it, but the numbers of the groups that could support this measure do not reach it. In any case, Junts’ option is that it be achieved through the Council of the EU due to the implications that this has. “We have focused our efforts on full officialdom. That it is spoken in the European Parliament is only a derivative of officialdom. Full officialdom gives legal rights,” argued Aleix Sarri, number three on the list and director of the campaign.
“It’s not just that you can talk. It is about being on equal terms with the rest of the languages, whether in labeling, consumer rights, legislation on audiovisuals or artificial intelligence,” said Sarri, who believes that achieving official status gives “legal protection.” much more important” into Catalan. “That is the core of official status,” summarized the leader of JxCat, who underlines that there are ten languages ??with fewer speakers that are official and has placed the achievement of the official status of Catalan in the EU as “an objective of the country and of vital importance for the future of the language.”
The former delegate of the Government of the Generalitat in Brussels, Gorka Knörr, for his part, has assured that “it has never come this far” after valuing and detailing the work of JxCat negotiator and has asked for “one last push.” “We ask for a last effort from the Spanish side to achieve unanimity in the Council of the EU and for Catalan to be official,” added Knörr, who highlights that this matter “implies that it is the first time that a State modifies its position in the linguistic regime. “That introduces a difficulty,” he considered.
In this campaign, as just a few weeks ago with the Catalan ones, Carles Puigdemont’s party warns its potential voters of the attempts to “Spanishize” the community contest that in its opinion come from both the PP and the PSOE and wants to put Catalonia in the center of his campaign. “We are and we want to be the Catalan voice in the heart of Europe,” said the former Catalan president at the rally, in which he spoke by videoconference from Belgium.
