The Consell de Garanties Estatutàres has endorsed the proposed law on the use and learning of the official languages ??in schools in Catalonia, agreed a couple of weeks ago by the four large groups in Parliament: ERC, Junts, PSC and En Comú Podem, of so that the rule has a free pass to be approved in Parliament this Wednesday, as planned.
The opinion issued by the advisory body at the initiative of the three right-wing groups (Citizens, Vox and the Catalan PP) indicates that the consensual bill to respond to the ruling of the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) that sets the 25% of Spanish in the classrooms conforms to the Constitution and statutory regulations.
Specifically, the opinion notes that the omission of Spanish as the vehicle language in the rule does not violate Articles 3 and 27 of the Constitution, nor Articles 6 and 35 of the Statute, in the terms in which the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court has interpreted them . . . . According to these articles, there would be no constitutional or statutory violation in the absence of percentages for the use and teaching of languages ??in schools, nor in the regulation in the new law of the curricular and educational use of languages Spanish and Catalan.
With the report of the Consell de Garanties, the consultative procedure forced by the three right-wing groups in Catalonia is fulfilled, which joined in a delaying strategy that would allow the deadline set by the TSJC for the Government to comply with the linguistic quota to be fulfilled, expired on May 31. With this strategy, these parties intended to put the Catalan Executive in a legal quandary by failing to comply with the application of 25% of Spanish in all Catalan schools.
The opinion, which is not binding, ratifies the broad consensus braided by the four parties around the language in schools, through a rule that establishes that Catalan, as Catalonia’s own language, is the language “normally used as a vehicular and of learning”, and that Spanish will be according to the linguistic criteria established by each centre, cataloging it for the first time as a “curricular” language.
The regulation, which is not clear as to whether it can serve to annul the 25% solution established by the TSJC, does not set percentages in the use and learning of languages, but rather states that “the teaching and curricular and educational use of Catalan and Spanish must be guaranteed”.
The norm will be approved this Wednesday in the plenary session of the Catalan Chamber, in which a space has been reserved for its debate and vote after its inclusion in the agenda by majority agreement in the Board of Spokespersons of the Parliament.
