The Catalan High Court (TSJC) has again used Catalonia’s recent educational legislation to oblige a primary school in Girona to teach one or more subjects in Spanish which “due to their importance in the curriculum as a whole and their teaching load, can be considered as ‘main’ subjects”. This is what Vilaweb published this Wednesday. The application of quotas, in terms of percentages of teaching time, was left out of the new Catalan legislation on language policy in schools, but it does nevertheless define Spanish as “a language of curricular and educational use”. With this premise, the TSJC has imposed Spanish in a school and requires the directors of the school to comply with the court order. As the digital newspaper points out, the teaching of one or more subjects in Spanish will affect the child of the family that requested it, and their entire class.
Specifically, what is on the table is the decisive role which the arithmetic has placed in the hands of Junts and the support that the pro-independence party may or may not be able to give to a Pedro Sánchez government. News stories like this one, however, sow doubts and move negotiating positions apart. And the Catalan president in exile, Carles Puigdemont has now spoken out on the subject, making a critical reflection on the approaches taken with regard to Catalonia’s situation up till now.
In that tweet, Puigdemont gave his assessment of the three possible outcomes of the Spanish general election: “If six days ago the provisional result already placed us at the centre of conversation and speculation, with the final results in hand the position has become even more confirmed: either Junts votes yes, or the PSOE ends up facilitating the investiture of Feijóo (or that of the candidate that the Populars propose), or we go to the repeat of the elections.” That it to say, either an agreement with Junts that allows Pedro Sánchez to form a new government, a PP-PSOE coalition headed by Feijóo, or a new election.
The exiled president continued: “Not enough time has passed to know what the two major Spanish parties will end up doing – the one that has lost while winning, and the one that has won while losing”, referring to the paradox that although the PP finished first on election night, its lack of support from minor parties makes it impossible to forge a coalition, whereas the PSOE’s situation is just the opposite. And the former Catalan leader warned: “In similar circumstances [in the past], they preferred to repeat the election. Therefore, it is necessary to maintain discretion and exercise extreme caution.”
Produced in association with El Nacional En
(Additional reporting provided by El Nacional En)
