Viewpoint: It’s the language - again

A flashpoint has been regional financing, with Més having allied themselves with opposition parties in taking the Spanish government to the Constitutional Court over the failure to include REB special economic regime provisions in the state budget. PSOE and Podemos have distanced themselves from this, which has only served to reinforce a Més perception of there being a two-party alliance within a three-way pact.

On a different matter, language, Més may well find that they have the support of Podemos, a party littered with members who are mainlanders and who have gone native in their defence of Catalan. PSOE’s education minister, Martí March, is proposing amendments to his education bill that would see greater emphasis placed on Castellano as a teaching language than the bill currently contemplates. This is in response to court judgements related to teaching in Catalonia.

A major clash between the parties because of this seems inevitable, language once more proving to be divisive politically and for society in general. This is a constant theme, to which there never is a resolution to satisfy all sides. In whatever form March’s bill is finally processed, if opposition parties take issue with it, the chances are that there will be amendment or repeal if there is a change of government. This is how it always is.