The Menorcan exception

In a recent radio program commemorating the centenary of Josep Maria Llompart, a Mallorcan intellectual, questioned by the journalist about the current Balearic Islands government's language policy, described it as curious, even strange. She stated that, at this time, laws are being passed or are being considered that go against the language, but, on the other hand, there are numerous institutional activities in favor of the language, funded by the government. The same interviewee contrasted the current situation with that of the disastrous—her adjective was the one she used—government of José Ramón Bauzá. She is right about this, but upon closer examination, Prohens's language policy is not so novel. In fact, it bears many similarities to that of Jaume Matas: maintaining a healthy distance from the most radical wing of Gonella's faction, promoting institutional activities, some quite significant, such as the Any Llompart event itself, subsidizing and treating the cultural sector well to keep it secure, and, meanwhile, limiting any possibility of a real and effective exercise of equality between Catalan and Spanish.

I believe that, were it not for Vox's coercive pressure, Prohens's language policy would be even more benign, though it would never truly become a policy of linguistic normalization. To be genuinely so, it should pursue the objectives set out in Article 1 of the Balearic Islands' Law on Linguistic Normalization: a) To ensure the progressive and normal use of the Catalan language in official and administrative spheres; b) To guarantee the progressive knowledge and use of Catalan as the language of instruction in education; c) To promote the use of the Catalan language in all forms of social media; and d) To raise public awareness of the importance of knowledge and use of the Catalan language by all citizens. No, the Popular Party would never actually aim for these objectives, but without Vox, they would surely offer more concessions than they do now, and would try to avoid conflicts and awkward situations. This is more or less what the Popular Party has always done, with the exception of the Bauzá era, and the current Menorcan exception.

While acknowledging the differences, the typical attitude of the island's inhabitants towards the language is reminiscent of that of the promoters of the first initiatives, in the mid-19th century, to revive our language following the Nueva Planta decrees. As Alfred Bosch explains in the book Make way! The epic tale of those who saved Catalan… despite themselves, The promoters of the first Floral Games had no hope, and therefore no intention, of turning the language of the troubadours into a modern, flexible and useful language, but rather to lovingly accompany it on its inevitable path to extinction, until the day came to certify its death and turn it into an adorable museum piece.

If the Mallorcan intellectual I mentioned earlier had spoken about the language policy of the island councils of Mallorca, Ibiza, or Formentera, she could have referred to it in terms similar to those she used to describe the government's policy, because, with some differences in degree, the orientation is the same. However, she could not say the same about the Island Council of Menorca, which is now the exception. It is the only self-governing institution in the Balearic Islands that practices a language-killing policy akin to Bauzá's animosity or the virulence of its Valencian counterparts. Menorca, the island envied because, as successive sociolinguistic surveys show, it has managed to maintain a greater social use of Catalan, maintains a higher level of linguistic competence and has preserved a greater social consensus in favor of linguistic normalization, today suffers an attack against the language that does not come from outside – this time the Mallorcans are not to blame – the social use of Catalan to promote the most botched secessionism and impose the use of Castilian.

In Bauzá's case, his unhealthy obsession with language and his inability to correct course when it was clear he was heading for disaster sank him. Prohens has learned her lesson, so on language issues she tries to navigate between two extremes, although her context is much more difficult than Bauzá's, because she doesn't govern with an absolute majority but with the crude and arrogant pressure of the far right. What makes Menorca an exception is that here, such pressure isn't necessary for the island government to spearhead the offensive against our language. The far-right councilor who is running the Consell government isn't even from Vox, but a defector, and she's just the excuse, the easy pretext to justify the Catalanophobic mania of the Minister of Culture, with the necessary cooperation of the president. Everyone knows that the amendment to the Consell's Language Use Regulations is the initiative of the Culture Councillor, even though they explain it as a concession to the defector in order to pass next year's budget. Their arrogance is audacious, because it doesn't break, as they claim, with the previous government's language policy, but with a forty-year consensus that all previous island governments had respected. Perhaps they haven't considered the consequences of such recklessness.