The PP, father and protector

The Agermanat Correllengua was an undeniable success, a new demonstration of the affection of the people of the Balearic Islands for their language and culture, and of the defense –energetic, festive, non-negotiable– that Mallorcan society makes of it, especially (and this is more than important, it is decisive) the young people. Plaça d’Espanya in Palma was filled to overflowing, as Plaça Major was two years ago, with thousands of people who shouted a civic, inclusive, hopeful, and, above all, massive ‘Yes to the language’.So massive that the very next day the Government spokesperson, Sebastià Sagreras, with his particular oratory, made efforts to try not to be left completely behind. After congratulating the organizers of the Correllengua Agermanat (there were reasons to do so, especially after the institutions governed by them had turned their backs on them), he said: “The PP of the Balearic Islands is the father and protector of the Linguistic Normalization Law”, Sagreras stated improperly, because the Linguistic Normalization Law was approved with a PP government, yes (today they would not do it), but in no way can it claim a paternity that was much broader, nor a protection that, over these forty years, organized civil society has too often had to provide. And he added, in Peixet, referring to this same law: “Throughout the legislature we have defended it, sustained it and marked it as a red line in all negotiations, despite the intentions of the left to use our language to confront us with the citizens”.This was said by Sagreras on Monday. The next day, Tuesday, in Parliament, the PP supported a series of amendments from Vox to the law on strategic projects, the sieve law. The approved amendments remove the requirement of Catalan for teachers and professors coming from outside who occupy positions “of difficult coverage”, without any obligation or subsequent deadline to prove knowledge of the language. They also exempted “temporary” students, who reside for a limited time in the Balearic Islands, from the Catalan subject. That is to say: for the umpteenth time, an attack against the own language of the Balearic Islands (and also the own language of PP leaders, such as Sagreras himself, or Prohens, or Vera) perpetrated by the Government. An attack, incidentally, which constitutes a serious violation of the Law of Linguistic Normalization, and also of the Statute. The PP does this to please the obsessions and hatreds of its Vox partners. Among the measures, it was also approved that local police can carry stun guns, and pigeon shooting was legalized: weapons, and killing animals, are things that the right-wing also usually likes a lot.To proclaim oneself one day a father and protector of the Language Normalization Law, and the very next day to disregard it without consideration in the company of fascism and Spanish ultranationalism, is no longer just cynicism: it is a strange dysfunction that indicates an extremely weak government, without leaders capable of negotiating anything, without principles and without dignity, completely surrendered to the far right and with no other course than to exhaust the legislature with the strategic project of giving the green light to all the speculators who happen to fall by here. There is a curious thing about Sagreras's discourse on the PP's fatherhood and protection of the Language Normalization Law, and that is that he says they have defended it “during the entire legislature”, and they have only been doing so for (not yet) two years. Apparently, it seems long to him: imagine all the others.