NOBODY EXPECTS THE SPANISH IMPOSITION

From his comfy chair in the chamber, Gabriel Le Senne presented the proposal for Spanish imposition on a parliament where such imposition has not existed for 33 years.

The chief weapon is fear. Fear and surprise, the two weapons are fear and surprise and ruthless efficiency. The three weapons are fear, surprise, ruthless efficiency and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope ... . Nobody expected the Spanish Inquisition, and nor could anyone have expected Michael Palin to have been cast in the role of a speaker of the Balearic parliament.

From his comfy chair in the chamber, Gabriel Le Senne presented the proposal for Spanish imposition on a parliament where such imposition has not existed for 33 years. Fear, that of Catalan speakers; surprise, only in that it had taken so long; ruthless efficiency - hardly, given the recent Vox shambles of ruthless incompetence worthy of the Monty Python bungling Inquisitors. An almost fanatical devotion to the Pope? Among some perhaps. Occupying a different chamber, the Council of Mallorca’s David Gil of Vox caused outrage by referring to Franco’s coup as a liberation crusade. “I’m not a fascist, but a good Catholic,“stated Sr. Gil, as the weight of disapproval fell onto him, including that of the Partido Popular.

For some years, we have heard often enough about the Catalan imposition. Political tables turned, and there is now the Spanish imposition. So draconian is this that all of parliament’s official documents and regulations must now be in Spanish ... as well as in Catalan. Since 1991 this hasn’t been the case, though you might be forgiven for thinking that it would have been. Aren’t there two co-official languages?

Le Senne intends establishing bilingualism in parliament, a Spanish imposition with the force of Terry Jones’ Cardinal Biggles poking an old woman with soft cushions. The use of both languages must be combined “in a balanced manner”, and parliament will be provided with the necessary and sufficient means for this purpose, explained Cardinal Le Senne. As to the cost of doing this, parliament’s board has approved two positions in order to make bilingualism effective, a bilingualism of the type that exists in Valencia and the Basque Country, as the PP’s Antoni Costa has pointed out. “It’s not extraordinary,“the government vice-president has noted.

But it was extraordinary enough for the Catalan Plataforma per la Llengua to have called a demo outside parliament against a process of accelerating “Spanish monolingualism”. Forty years of consensus are being dynamited. A red line has been crossed. “It cannot be tolerated”, even if it is by the Basques not that they speak Catalan.

Costa, very much adopting the soft cushions and comfy chair approach, has said that he perfectly understands that there will be some Catalan-speaking citizens of the Balearics who do not feel that they are represented by the Balearic government because of the Spanish imposition for the first time in parliament. That sounded like a risky statement, given that 60% of the Balearic population speaks Catalan well (and/or one of the island languages). Ah but, 94% of the population speaks Castellano well, according to a National Statistics Institute survey that was published just over a year ago.

If almost the entire population, probably excluding foreigners who can’t speak Castellano well or at all, is so up to speed with Spanish, why is a parliament Spanish imposition so necessary? “Freedom of individuals,“Costa has explained. “An appeal to freedom, always respecting that whoever is against it is within their rights.” Such as the Plataforma per la Llengua. And it’s not as if the Le Senne command means that members of the house are all obliged to stand and cry “Buenos días” in unison as he enters and reads the register. Costa himself has stressed that he will continue to address parliament in Catalan.

The fear lies, where groups such as Plataforma per la Llengua are concerned, with a general decline in the habitual use of Catalan. Despite the language having taken something of a precedence in education, population growth and social influences have acted against Catalan. A majority of incomers who contribute to population growth come from South America. They speak Spanish. Youth culture is dominated by Spanish, meaning - as Plataforma per la Llengua says - that it is the default language.

As factors not to do with politics are seemingly undermining Catalan, it is “perfectly understandable”, to borrow from Antoni Costa, that there is the fear when politicians get involved. Which they have an unerring capacity to do, and to such an extent - as has been accepted by certain figures both political and social - that the general public feels that language is only of interest to politicians.

If this is the case, then will the public, in general, be in the least bit concerned by what languages parliament is using? Besides, as Costa and the overwhelming majority of members of parliament use Catalan, it’s not as if parliament is turning its back on Catalan. Nor is it the case that Castellano hasn’t been habitually used by certain members, including ones from the left. For example, Iago Negueruela of PSOE always used to speak Spanish; he’s from Galicia.

A Spanish imposition - so-called at any rate - but will it make any difference?