The decision of Junts to separate itself definitively from the political consensus with the PSC, the Comuns and ERC to modify the Catalan language policy law breaks the accord that had been reached on the language and leaves hanging in the air the response that will be given to Spanish justice's interference in the percentage of Spanish used in the classrooms of Catalonia. There is still a parliamentary majority if the three remaining signatory groups want to carry out the project - the most controversial new element was to introduce Spanish as a second vehicular language in schools, depending on the language project devised by each centre - but Junts's decision also modifies the alignment of the pro-independence civil groups and those more specifically related to language and education, as the absence of political consensus reaffirms those that were already against the agreement, and separates those that might have joined if there had been an agreement.
Although the seed of Junts' decision had been sown at the end of March, when the party first joined the photograph of unity and a few hours later completely braked its participation, the swing of the wheel it has given since that initial positioning has been important, going from leading the 'yes' grouping to seeking to lead the 'no'. The Junts congress on 4th June has a lot to do with it and so does the agreement between Laura Borràs and Jordi Turull, beyond the fact that, formally, the rupture has taken place within Jordi Sànchez's term of leadership. It is up to ERC to decide what to do now and to Catalan president Pere Aragonès to manage a crisis in which the two partners of the government maintain a radically opposite position on an issue which is not at all insignificant. To top it off, it's all within the portfolio of the ministry of education, led by Josep Gonzàlez-Cambray, which seems to be in the eye of a perfect storm, as this problem overlaps with the dispute over the calendar for the start of the school year in September, which the department intends to bring forward, prompting a rebellion in the educational community.
All this, taking into account the ultimatum handed down by the Catalan High Court (TSJC) to immediately impose a 25% quota of classes taught in Spanish, a crucial question that weighs on the architecture of any agreement, as one cannot possibly dodge it without an act of political disrespect. And probably not with such an act either, as the TSJC is able to go directly to all schools with instructions in this regard. But the truth is that we are at the point now, trying to turn around an impossible decision by the court, which, after many acts of avoidance and appeals has entered the final straight with respect to this 25% demand. And that is why the pact sought, or at least claimed to seek, to protect education in the Catalan language in the other 75%.
The issue of the Catalan language, which in recent years has concentrated an enormous offensive by Spanish politicians, judiciary and media, is paradigmatic of many things, the vast majority of them worrying. The scenario of the 1980s and part of the 1990s no longer exists, and as the 2010 Constitution Court decision on the new Catalan Statute of Autonomy showed, there is no longer anything protected by the law. The state invades devolved powers and dilutes the ones that are shared, pushing the Catalan administration's capacity for self-government into a corner, to a sometimes-insulting extent. This is the stark reality that the controversy over language immersion in schools lays out before us, whether we care to look at it or not. There is no longer any protection of anything and justice has swung in like a wrecking ball to decide something as far removed from its competencies as the curriculum for each school year. It is an anomaly and an outrage, but it has all the logic in the world.
Economic asphyxiation, cutbacks in competencies, fracturing the educational model, attacks on the Catalan language and amputation of legislative capacity: these are all ingredients of the same restrictive formula in which Catalonia is immersed. And as long as there is no attempt to visualize the overall problem, it will be impossible to make a diagnosis and find a way forward.