All quiet?
The boiling frog

Febrary 23, 2020

If you throw a frog into boiling water, it jumps out immediately. On the other hand, if you put it in a pot of cold water that you slowly bring to the boil, it will not try to escape because it hardly feels the change in temperature. Until it is too late and the frog is boiled to death.

The fact that the separatists have produced relatively few headlines recently does not mean that their activities have diminished. On the contrary, their attempts to catalanize Valencia in order to realize the dreamed imperial „Països Catalans“ are being pushed forward in all areas and the dictatorial use of language is one of the most important tools to achieve this.

The Plataforma per la Llengua (Platform for the Language) began this week to collect signatures in favour of calling Valenciano^[1] in future only Catalan because an initiative to this effect has failed in the Valencian parliament.^[2] Thus the newspaper ABC reported on 20th February from a platform, which is massively subsidised by the Catalan government.^[3]

On February 18th Las Provincias reported: „A summit meeting scheduled for this Thursday in Tarragona between the presidents of all the provincial councils of Catalonia and the Valencian Autonomous Community has sparked a bitter controversy, the first consequence of which was the decision by the president of the Alicante Provincial Corporation, Carlos Mazón, not to attend the meeting. The agenda of the meeting, with an explicit reference to the „establishment of a common space“ between the institutions represented and the presence of three pro-independence politicians, two from the ERC and one from Junts per Cat, among the participants in the midst of the secessionist development in Catalonia, has reopened old debates on the relationship between the two regions“.^[4]

Of course this development is not without contradictions even within the extreme nationalists in Catalonia and Valencia. Nevertheless, a tendency seems to be visible if one follows the Spanish Diario, which already on February 9th titled: „El gobierno de Puig pacta con Cataluña y Baleares reforzar el uso del catalán“ (The [Valencian] government of Puig makes a pact with Catalonia and the Balearic Islands to increase the use of the Catalan).^[5]

Of course, all this has nothing to do with legality and some critics refer to the Valencian Constitution, which explicitly states that the two official languages of Valencia are Castellano (Spanish) and Valenciano.

But when it comes to questions of legality, which the separatists always demand of the Spanish state, it is interesting to look at one of the recent resolutions of the Catalan Parliament. On 19 February, Barcelona Hoy reported: „El Parlamento de Cataluña se compromete a dejar de comprar productos del resto de España“ (The Parliament of Catalonia undertakes to stop buying products from the rest of Spain).^[6] This decision is a clear violation of European standards, which state that there must be no territorial restrictions against members of the European Union. Within a state this is even more absurd, it is the same as the London town hall making a decision to prohibit the purchase of goods from Manchester.

All the more reason for more and more parents to fight for the free right to decide on the language of instruction for their children. The association „Idiomas y Educación“ (Languages and Education) from Alicante continues to warn of the imminent immersion^[7] into the Valencian language in the education system, especially for the academic years 2020 and 2021^[8] and has drawn up a catalogue of demands that also opposes the confusing diversity of language education, which „Hablamos Español“ warns of in its latest publication.^[9]

The tables published by „Hablamos Español“ can be understood even without any knowledge of Spanish, you just have to know that on the left the primary schools (CEIP/Colegio) are listed with their different language percentages and on the right the schools of the 2nd level of education (IES = from 6th grade on). The effect of this Ley del plurilinguismo (Multilingualism Law, called Fraud Language Law by parents) will therefore additionally ensure that after primary school the pupils do not have a uniform but a completely different linguistic background.

The next big demonstration against the Ley del plurilinguismo will be organised in Valencia on 7 March. Let us prevent the separatists from „raising the temperature slowly and unnoticed“.

Footnotes

[1] Die valencianische Sprache Valenciano gilt als Dialekt der katalanischen Sprache, des Katalan.

[2] Fracasa la iniciativa para denominar por ley catalán a la lengua valenciana ante la falta de apoyo político
Die Initiative zur Benennung der valencianischen Sprache durch das katalanische Gesetz scheitert an der mangelnden politischen Unterstützung
https://www.abc.es/espana/comunidad-valenciana/abci-fracasa-iniciativa-para-denominar-catalan-lengua-valenciana-falta-apoyo-politico-202002171240_noticia.html

[3] El Govern regó con 3,7 millones de euros a la ONG que espiaba en los recreos que se hablara catalán
Die katlanische Regierung schüttete 3,7 Mio Euros an die NGO, die in den Pausen spionierte, ob man Katalan spricht
https://www.elmundo.es/cataluna/2019/07/20/5d320ce4fc6c83b41c8b4695.html

[4] El PSPV se suma a las diputaciones catalanas para crear un «espacio común»
Die PSPV schließt sich den katalanischen Räten an, um einen «gemeinsamen Raum» zu schaffen
https://www.lasprovincias.es/politica/pspv-diputaciones-catalanas-espacio-comun-20200217191517-nt.html

[5] https://www.esdiario.com/111563360/El-gobierno-de-Puig-pacta-con-Cataluna--Balerares-reforzar-el-catalan.html

[6] https://www.barcelonahoy.es/el-parlamento-de-cataluna-se-compromete-a-dejar-de-comprar-productos-del-resto-de-espana?utm_campaign=ultimas-noticias-20-de-febrero-de-2020&utm_medium=email&utm_source=acumbamail

[7] Unter Immersion (lateinisch immersio ‚Eintauchen‘; daher auch deutsch Sprachbad) versteht man in der Sprachwissenschaft und der Pädagogik eine Situation, in der Personen, vor allem Kinder, in ein fremdsprachiges Umfeld versetzt werden, in dem sie – beiläufig oder gewünschtermaßen – die fremde Sprache erwerben. Anders als bei der Anwendung von Sprachlernmethoden folgt bei der Immersion der Erwerb der fremden Sprache ausschließlich den Prinzipien des Mutterspracherwerbs. (Wikipedia)

[8] Los padres contrarios a la imposición del valenciano cuentan con un decálogo
Eltern, die gegen die Einführung von Valenciano sind, haben einen Forderungskatalog aufgestellt
https://autonomico.elconfidencialdigital.com/articulo/comunidad_valenciana/decalogo-padre-alumno-valenciano-acosado-plurilinguismo-inmersivo/20200214120840024851.html

[9] En la comunidad Valenciana, alumnado con diferente nivel en español, valenciano e inglés, porque procede de centros de Primaria con diferente porcentaje, tienen asignado el mismo instituto.
In der Comunidad Valenciana werden Schüler mit unterschiedlichen Niveaus in Spanisch, Valencianisch und Englisch, da sie aus Grundschulen mit unterschiedlichen Prozentsätzen kommen, derselben Institution (2. Bildungsstufe) zugewiesen.
https://hispanohablantes.es/2020/02/21/en-la-comunidad-valenciana-alumnado-con-diferente-nivel-en-espanol-valenciano-e-ingles-porque-procede-de-centros-de-primaria-con-diferente-porcentaje-tienen-asignado-el-mismo-instituto/

	Newsletter subscription
	We will notify you only with a newsletter, when there is a new article! Click here to subscribe or cancel your subscription