As can be seen in the amendments made to the proposals up for debate at the triennial conference of the Catalan Socialists' Party (PSC), it will not be easy to smash, in a single blow, the system of Catalan language immersion used in Catalonia's education system, as has been effectively suggested by a discussion planned for the party gathering later this month. The proposal for a new policy on this issue, which caused so much controversy a week ago because it suggested the PSC's position on the issue had moved far away from where it had been located for decades, will be the subject of debate at the conference, because different groups have amended the text, and although they have done so with different formulas, it is with the same objective: leaving things as they are.
It is not certain that these amendments will prosper in the end, and this is a debate that the Catalan Socialists should not have opened, because it means buying in to the mental framework of Ciudadanos (Cs) and assuming that there is a language problem in Catalan schools. What is happening is that as the Cs ship has gone down, the PSC has wanted to make a grab for the electoral booty on board, and thus, to have a chance of becoming the largest party in Catalonia when the next elections are held. But that's going to be difficult in any case, as part of the Ciudadanos vote is likely to take refuge in Vox, according to some surveys not yet released. This circumstance may limit the rise in Socialist support.
Whatever happens, the PSC can't be negotiating Pedro Sánchez's investiture as new Spanish PM at one negotiation table with the pro-independence party ERC, while at another table it is destroying Catalonia's educational model for a handful of possible votes. Logic suggests it will have to correct this drift, as the feeling that "the language is not to be messed with" is too transversal among Catalans for there to be any scope to hack into it.
Another aspect that stands out, and it is good that it does, is that there are many more amendments to the discussion paper on the language - almost five times as many - than on those that have been presented on the recognition of Catalonia as a nation and the vague proposal for a federal Spain. The federalism mantra has been exhausted, and, like the idea of moving the Spanish senate to Barcelona, only serves to stage sterile debates that only interest the PSC and its Spanish parent party, the PSOE. The question of the Catalan nation is more difficult and here the PSC's Miquel Iceta will have to deal with Sánchez and the PSOE barons. The monolithic Spain comprising a single nation with a single language has, since way back, been incompatible with diversity. That is why a significant part of Catalonia disconnected itself from this reality a long time ago and put the pro-independence parties in the driver's seat.