A teacher at a school in A Pontenova, a town of just over 2,000 inhabitants in the province of Lugo, Galicia, has just received a serious administrative warning for teaching Maths in Galician. It's meant nothing that 100% of their students speak Galician, as the department of Education's order is clear: a decree passed in 2010 required that the classes be given in Spanish and, as such, the subject has to be given in Spanish or, alternatively, in English. In Galicia, the Partido Popular is in government, the party which some still consider to be the most moderate of the Spanish right. The president is Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the archetype, according to Madrid, of Spanish centrism. The eternal hope who, to date, has let himself be loved by all and who hasn't been called for by anyone. That, in parties, doesn't matter.
The deterioration of the model of the Spain of autonomous communities isn't something that exclusively affects Catalonia. With greater or lesser intensity, there's an undeniable attempt to erase all individual characteristics of the territories with their own identities. Did anyone think it was just the Catalan question? Who's been so naive, or foolish, to believe that the Spanish state only aimed to squash the Catalan independence movement? It's obvious that the different languages and cultures of the state have reasons to be worried. It's all a matter of time and Euskadi won't remain untouched by the recentralising process that's underway, even if it's where it's been least notable so far.
In the pre-campaign for the Spanish general election to be held on 28th April, something very curious is happening: they're only talking about Catalonia and how to put an end to the independence movement. Maybe banning pro-independence parties, maybe imprisoning Quim Torra and his entire government, a new article 155 to suspend Catalan autonomy again, a permanent article 155, decaffeinated Mossos (Catalan police) under the orders of the Civil Guard and the Spanish National Police Corps, control of Catalan public broadcaster TV3... Everything's on those lines. Nothing more from Pedro Sánchez, Pablo Casado, Albert Rivera and Santiago Abascal. By the way: as they're the main topic of conversation, maybe the pro-independence parties might start to take the election campaign a bit more seriously.
In 1976, then Spanish prime minister Adolfo Suárez granted an interview to the magazine Paris Match in which, asked whether pupils could study in Catalan or Basque in the Basque Country or Catalonia, he said: "Your question, forgive me for saying, is stupid. Find me, first of all, teachers who can teach nuclear physics in Basque or in Catalan. Let's be serious...". Even though years later one of the journalists present at the interview said that Suárez had only referred to Basque, what's certain is that it's the whole sentence that's gone down in history. The first free elections after the dictatorship still hadn't been held in Spain, the Spain of the autonomous communities didn't even exist, Josep Tarradellas wasn't even considering returning from exile in France, and the Parliament of Catalonia only existed in the history books. 42 years later, Adolfo Suárez is no longer around, the Adolfo Suárez involved in politics is spreading nonsense all over the place, the "centred" right is scarier than the old UCD and maths has to be taught in Spanish.