The impressive demonstration that took place on Sunday in the centre of Palma, in defence of Catalan, on the occasion of a Language Day celebration, makes it clear that politics and language are not separate things, but are irretrievably united. The arrival of Marga Prohens, representing the People's Party (PP), at the head of the Balearic Islands government took place after agreement with Vox, and since then they have scarcely ceased to promote measures to push back the Catalan language, with an unmistakable desire to leave it stranded, annulling it as a prerequisite for entry into the civil service and leaving it as something folkloric.
The demonstration therefore had a specific motivation and the cultural association Obra Cultural Balear identified the problem perfectly. This significant mobilization, one of the most prominent in recent years in Palma, has another objective: to put a stop to Prohens's plans after she removed the requirement for Catalan skills in public health and announced that her government would start a pilot plan, next year, to give schools the possibility to teach subjects in Spanish. The positive response by the public is something more than just a red flag for the Balearic government: it is a positioning of resistance against the avalanche unleashed by a government insensitive to the signs of a country's identity.
Politics and language are not separate things, which is why it is important that May 12th is also a plebiscite on Catalan
The fact that this mobilization has coincided with the Catalan election campaign should mean that the debate on the language and the measures for its protection is introduced even more strongly. Those opposed to Catalan know well what they are doing: hindering as much as they can the status it has as first language which comes from it being the country's own language. Many efforts have been made, many appeals have been presented to the courts, there has been an unstoppable media campaign, and one party, Ciudadanos, was even created with the aim of marginalizing the Catalan language. All this with additional spicing up from the press in the Spanish capital, often almost mutinous. There have also been important responses in support of Catalan, such as the approval about ten days ago of the historic Catalan law in Andorra, which will require that residents speak a minimum level of the language, something that after 2029 will be essential to demonstrate in order to renew permits.
That is why it is important that May 12th is also a plebiscite on Catalan. Let there be a massive vote for the parties that defend the role of the Catalan language, with a normality that it does not have now, since its role as the spirit of the nation is permanently questioned. Only in this way will Catalan be able to try to recover the path lost in recent years, having suffered a serious setback, much more evident among young people and in general social use. This is a path that leads inexorably to it taking a secondary role with respect to the Spanish language. All of this will also be voted on next Sunday.