The Balearic Islands will not promote a modification of the Statute of Autonomy to eliminate Catalan as an official language and replace it with “Balearic languages”, a Vox proposal that the PP has closed outright one day after it was raised. The spokesman for the Balearic Executive, Antoni Costa, has assured that the popular parties do not share Vox’s speech and defend the unity of the Catalan language.
Costa has defended the linguistic authority of the University of the Balearic Islands, as stated in the Statute itself, something that Vox also questions, and points out that the words of the extreme right party on the matter only concern the extreme right party. “We cannot cover her mouth,” she said when she was asked about Vox’s requests to change the Statute.
Vox’s request comes after King Felipe VI has granted the ‘Royal’ title to an entity of the Islands that has been questioning the unity of the Catalan language for years and that defends that a language of its own has been spoken in the Balearic Islands since the time of the Phoenicians. After the endorsement of the King, his name is Real Acadèmi de sa Llengo Baléà and his latest proposal has been to ask the Parliament for recognition of the Balearic language as a minority language.
The Balearic Government insists that it will maintain unchanged the Statute of Autonomy which, in its article 4, states that the Catalan language, “typical of the Balearic Islands” is official on the islands along with Spanish. The Statute does ask that the linguistic modalities used in the Islands be recognized and promoted. “Linguistic modalities deserve the utmost respect and the Government will do everything possible to ensure that they are used and promoted, but without prejudice to the unity of the language,” the spokesperson noted.
The reform of the Statute does not appear in the agreements signed by PP and Vox to favor the investiture of Marga Prohens as president, although it does incorporate elements such as the elimination of the Catalan requirement to work in public health and the modification of laws that go against equal opportunities for people who use Spanish or Catalan. “It will not be the Government that tells Vox what its position should be,” she stated.
The controversy over Vox’s proposal and the controversy over the royal title to the Academia de sa Llengo Baléà reach the doors of a mobilization in defense of Catalan promoted this Sunday by the Balearic Cultural Work. The entity, very critical of Prohens’ linguistic measures, has called a rally in the Plaza Major to which a significant attendance is expected since it is supported by 60 entities from the Balearic Islands.
Antoni Costa has indicated that he does not know if anyone from the Government will participate this Sunday in this large concentration called by the OCB, although if someone does, he has pointed out, they will do so in a personal capacity. The spokesperson has denied, however, that the call for this protest is the result of a social conflict that, in his opinion, does not exist.
