Resistance from all sides
Who wants the Ley Celaà?

As announced, the so-called Ley Celaá has passed through parliament and slowly more and more resistance is emerging. The German online magazine „NachDenkSeiten“ (reflection pages) has kindly published an article of mine with the headline: „Right and left demonstrations in Spain against the new education law“.

The NachDenkSeiten have been on the Internet for German readers since 2003. I have translated the text of this article into English.

Totally nuts?
Spanish soon no longer a vernacular in Spain?

The PSOE, Podemos and ERC (Republican Left of Catalonia) have agreed that the new LOMLOE (Ley Orgánica para la reforma de la Ley Orgánica de Educación / Education Law) will no longer include Spanish as a vernacular in schools.

What impact will this have on schools?

Constitution?
Is that demcratic?

Article 6(3) of the Statute of Autonomy states: „The Generalitat will guarantee the normal and official use of the two languages“.

The supreme courts of Valencia and Spain have rejected all attempts by the Valencian Generalitat to obstruct bilingualism in favour of Valenciano. The PSOE and the Mayor of Valencia, Joan Ribó, are not bothered. Together with Compromís and the bloc nacionalista valencià, they have once again rejected the bilingualism of our province, instructing that it is up to the administration to decide how to communicate with the citizens.

So it is not surprising that in Barcelona, simple shop assistants in a bakery now suffer insults and hate-attacks from the language dictators because they cannot speak Catalan.

Can that be true?
Corona? Physicians must speak Valenciano!

Corona restrictions drive up „surgery waiting time“, local newspapers report. In September „61,700 people are waiting ... waiting for an appointment for an operation - around 1,400 more than in July“ and „medical staff ... have published an open letter to Valencia's prime minister“ ^[1], in which they complain about the lack of special allowances. (Applause buys no bread) Las Provincias reported on 13.10.20 that the staff is working at 90% of its capacity with the burden of the Covid measures and writes: „We hardly look for patients who do not have a Covid“ ^[2].

Many governments are tightening lockdowns and curfews in view of the expected increase in influenza and Covid-19 during the fall. Ten thousand high-ranking scientists led by professors from Harvard, Oxford and Stanford, supported by 25,000 medical professionals, call for a return to old normality in the Barrington Declaration.

It is therefore time to debate and eliminate the real causes of the plight of the Spanish and Valencian health system. Instead, the Valencian government's solution in this precarious situation is: Physicians must be able to speak Valenciano! ^[3]

Is that important?
Villajoyosa or La Vila Joiosa?

Since the spring, there seemed to be only one issue: the restrictions imposed by most European governments. One could almost believe that the forces that want to destroy the Spanish state in favor of regional forces have remained inactive.

The schools were closed and a positive side effect of homeschooling prevented that the students with Spanish mother tongue were forced to use a regional language every day. In fact, the language imposition intensified. In almost all regions with more than two official languages, the instructions that imposed restrictions were often only announced in the respective regional language. In order to know how to behave, one was forced to get precise translations in order to avoid punishment.

The Town Council of Villajoyosa, a small town north of Alicante, dominated by the PSOE, Compromís and Gent per La Vila joiosa - Cs, decided on September 17, 2020 that the Spanish name of the town should no longer be officially used in the future. Is this a reason for being upset?

Even during the lockdowns: Many are working on fragmentation of Spain
Education policy as an amplifier of extreme nationalism

Nationalism is neither good nor bad in itself. After the period of aristocratic rule, it is an instrument of freedom and enlightenment. In so far as democratic development has taken place, the state can guarantee the protection of freedoms through legislation, but it can also guarantee occupational safety, climate protection etc. Unfortunately, nationalism is and has been misused for senseless wars of nations against each other.

On the one hand, most global corporations no longer want states and borders. National protection laws only bother them. On the other hand, there are also forces in Spain that want to tear the state apart from within in favour of small regional ?lords?. although here, as in the whole of the EU, there are no peoples that are oppressed within their national territory.

The education policy in Spain is an example of how the youth have been manipulated in this sense. Dr. Antonio Jimeno, President of the teachers' union AMES, draws attention to this in an essay that we have translated here.

How comprehensive is the indoctrination?
Nationalistic indoctrination even in language books

As early as 2017, the teachers' union AMES, in a study of Catalan textbooks, had demonstrated the indoctrination of pupils in favour of separatism. They were capable of generating hatred against Spain, the Spanish language and everything Spanish. This research was based essentially on differences between books, provided they were issued in Madrid or Barcelona. AMES complained that the Ministry of Education did not have the necessary mechanisms to ensure that only what was in accordance with the Constitution was taught.

Now the Hablamos Español organisation has once again commissioned a study carried out by teachers who work at grassroots level. This study includes in particular the language books and all the Autonomous Communities with regional languages.

What is meant?
The demand for bi- or multilingualism

Away from the all-dominant corona theme, the efforts of the separatists have not ceased to sharpen the instrument of language imposition for their minority languages. There is never a lack of justified evidence that bilingualism or multilingualism is beneficial to children's ability to learn.

The question is, what do the separatists understand by bi- or multilingualism?

School tasks during Corona only in Valenciano
Systematic discrimination against Spanish speakers

Families in the Autonomous Community of Valencia are outraged because some schools take advantage of the health crisis to force their children into compulsory immersion[1] in Valenciano and refuse to give homework and information in Spanish.

The organisation ?Hablamos Español? is inundated with reports from parents who want to teach their children at home during periods of quarantine, but are prevented from doing so because they only receive the necessary information in Valenciano, which they do not understand.

Nation, State and Pancatalanism
Is Catalonia a nation?

Recently there has been an increasing amount of debate in Spain about the question of whether there is a Catalan nation, a question that also arises for Spain. As recently as December last year, the PSC (Catalan PSOE = Socialists) described Spain as a nation of nations^[1].

Catalan separatists often speak of the existence of a Catalan nation^[2] long before the term nation even existed as a political subject. It is time to look at the question of what the terms nation and state mean. Even more important is to understand what these terms are still good for today and what they can or must be used for. This will be briefly attempted in the following essay.

All quiet?
The boiling frog

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. The 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.

Some facts
What distinguishes Catalonia from Scotland?

With the brexit now completed, it is clear that a majority of the Scots wants independence from Britain. In Catalonia this is not true of the majority, but it is important to recognise the differences in the desire for independence.

A brief explanation.

A small achievement
Altea: Traffic signs also in Spanish

?In accordance with your request No: 14945, in which you demand the modification of the road signs, which currently, avoiding Castilian, are only in Valenciano, we inform you that, in accordance with the provisions of the Statute of Autonomy of the Autonomous Community of Valencia, both Castilian and Valenciano are official languages of that Community; therefore, and in order to promote the correct understanding of road signs, we will in the future, as far as possible, carry out the inscription of all road signs in both official languages.?

This is how I understand the translation of the letter of reply from the Town Hall of Altea to a request from the organisation ?Hablamos Español? from January 13, 2020.

Orihuela (province of Alicante): 77,000 inhabitants, 20,000 on the road
Thousands demonstrate for the free choice of language!

The parents' association FAPA Gabriel Miró had called for a protest against the ?Ley del Plurilingüismo? (Multilingualism Law), because this law does not promote multilingualism, but aims to oust Spanish from the classroom. In the province of Alicante, as part of the Comunidad Valenciana, the overwhelming majority speaks only Spanish and no Valenciano at all, no wonder that the protest is initially most fierce here. It's as if in London lessons have to be taught in Liverpool-English (Scouse!).

The main demonstration took place on Saturday in Orihuela, some of the demonstrators arrived by bus and filled the streets the biggest crowd the place had ever seen. In 12 other cities of the Comunidad Valencia there were rallies of support, as shown here in the picture from Valencia with the demands: ?Freedom of choice of language?, ?Stop the dictatorship of language?, ?Let the families decide and not the politicians?, ?Spain without linguistic obstacles?.

Against the Fraud Language Law
Demonstration Sat 18 January!
Free Election of Language!

There is growing resistance against the so-called ?Ley del Plurilingüismo? (Multilingual Law), many AMPA's (parents' associations) have already protested) and are calling for demonstrations on Saturday 18 January.

Parents have long called it ?Ley del Timolingüismo? (Fraud Language Law) because, under the pretext of strengthening the teaching of English, more and more Valenciano is being taught in schools instead of Spanish.

For 2020 to be a year that defuses the Catalonia conflict
Happy New Year!

Politics in Spain is currently dominated by the question of whether Sanchez will succeed in forming a government. To do so, he will have to make compromises with the Catalan ERC.

It is pointless to indulge in speculation about this, in a few days we will know the result. This blog will continue to provide important information about the Catalan conflict.

The organisation Hablamos Español is calling for demonstrations against the language imposition at 5 locations in the Comunidad Valenciana on January, 18.