As debate rages on the application of the Supreme Court's decision imposing 25% of teaching time in Castilian on Catalan students, and as negotiations also go on over the issue of protecting Catalan and other minoritized languages in Spain's new audiovisual law, Catalan president in exile Carles Puigdemont has asserted the need to "move into action" in defence of the language. "Taking an attitude of reducing one's demands does not prevent aggressive and xenophobic campaigns against speakers of a minoritized language," advises Puigdemont in a Twitter thread in which he calls for the defence of Catalonia's own language from all possible areas: the administration, the courts and, if necessary, the European Court of Human Rights. The pro-independence MEP asserts that the right to linguistic choice must be respected by everyone and in this regard, it is the Catalan speakers who have the most to gain, and for that reason he makes a strong defence of the laws that protect language rights - and calls for their compliance.
In a thread which takes a broad perspective to the issue and does not quote the Catalan government or the pro-independence parties at all, Puigdemont begins by warning against any relaxation in the defence of the Catalan language, affirming that the Spanish state and its government only protect the Castilian (Spanish) language - "the strong language", which "is not in any danger".
The president warns that campaigns against Catalan will exist whatever they do, and he therefore makes a call to "move into action". "We have laws that we have to use to assert our language rights. Everyone needs to abide by the law, and those who don't have to face the consequences," he asserts before ending with an ironic: "That was how it worked, wasn't it?"
For this reason, the pro-independence leader believes that it is necessary to appeal to the administration, the courts and even go to the European Court of Human Rights "whenever necessary". "Any breach of the laws that oblige to attend in Catalan must have consequences. Because ours is a minoritized and threatened language and must be the object of special respect and protection," he states.
Puigdemont warns that the linguistic rights of everyone, Castilian speakers and Catalan speakers, must be respected. "Those who have the most to gain are the Catalan speakers, because our language is systematically ignored in areas where the law says that it should be respected," he argues.
He also asserts that neither the state nor the Spanish government "have ever come out in defence of the rights of Catalan speakers breached by public officials and by public and private companies", which shows that "they are neither our state nor our government, because they have never raised their voices for us."
In the main image, Catalan president in exile Carles Puigdemont in a press conference at the European Parliament / Efe