Catalonia is accused of Spanish ‘linguistic genocide’

A PROPOSAL to downgrade Spanish in Catalan schools has been describ e d as “l i nguistic genocide” by traditionalists, who accuse t he country’s Left- wing government of selling out the language of Cervantes to appease Catalan separatists.

The proposed education reform, which is being debated in Spain’s parliament, has seen the country’s fractious political scene cut down the middle once more, despite appeals for unity by Pedro Sánchez, the prime minister.

Regions s uch as t he Basque Country and Catalonia already deliver education largely in their local languages, but the proposal would erase a clause that enshrines Spanish as the “vehicular language”.

The Socialist party of Mr Sánchez and hard-left coalition partner Podemos came under heavy fire over the education reform yesterday in Congress, where the government lacks a stable parliamentary majority and is forced to rely on Basque and Catalan nationalist parties.

Speaking for the main opposition Popular Party (PP), Sandra Moneo said the reform “breaks [ Spain’s] system of liberties and the constitutional consensus”.

The PP has said it will use all legal means to avoid applying the new law in the regions where it governs, while Spain’ s liberal Ciudadanos party has said it wi l l not support Mr Sánchez’s crucial 2021 Covid reconstruction budget in protest at the “Stalinist ” education reform.

Jon Juaristi, a f ormer director of the Cervantes Institute, a public agency t hat promotes Spanish language and culture, told the newspaper El Mundo that it was “linguistic genocide” to “destroy Spaniards’ language and replace it with one that has no international projection”, such as Catalan.

The government defended Spain’s eighth education reform in little over four decades of democracy by pointing out the stated objective that all pupils must achieve proficiency in Spanish.

“This is not the elimination of Spanish; it is perfectly safeguarded,” said Isabel Celaá, the education minister.

Spain’s courts have told Catalonia’s education department that a quarter of classes must be taught in Spanish, but pro-spanish groups say that this is largely ignored.