All of Vox's victories against Catalan in the Islands

PalmDeputy Sergio Rodríguez described Vox's language strategy thus: "If Catalan nationalism has taken 40 years to change things, we can too." Little by little, and with the complicity of the People's Party (PP), the party has been introducing its language agenda into the institutions of the Balearic Islands, sometimes breaking long-standing consensus. "We have made significant progress, but we still have work to do," a party source summarized.

Education and Administration

Less Catalan in classrooms and services

Through agreements with the PP, Vox has spearheaded several of the Balearic Government's reforms in this area. The most notable are the Language Choice Plan and the inclusion of Spanish as the primary language of instruction in the Education Law, although the PP and Vox have had disagreements on how to implement this latter agreement, and it has not yet been put into effect. Vox also demanded, as a condition for facilitating Marga Prohens's investiture, the elimination of the Office for the Defense of Linguistic Rights, although the PP maintains that it has integrated its functions into the Institute of Balearic Studies (IEB). In parallel, the PP has eliminated the Catalan language requirement for working in the healthcare sector, lowering the required level for other civil service positions.

"This legislature has not taken any positive measures to promote the language, and furthermore, the far right has been allowed to impose its narrative," laments Antoni Llabrés, president of the Balearic Cultural Association (OCB). What consequences does this have for the health of the language? Natxo Sorolla, PhD in Sociology, expert in sociolinguistics, and researcher at the Center for Research in Sociolinguistics and Communication at the University of Barcelona, ​​points particularly to the effects of reducing Catalan in schools. "Minority languages ​​have been able to observe a slowing of the language shift process when they have been able to acquire them through the education system," he explains: "Teaching ensures the acquisition of the language by both existing and new speakers."

Ismael Pelegrí, a Menorcan linguist and author of the book on sociolinguistics Shall we talk? (Documenta Balear) points out that both the Statute of Autonomy and the Law on Linguistic Normalization "oblige the island's institutions to take measures to achieve a balanced use of both languages." In this regard, it criticizes the elimination or reduction of Catalan language requirements. "This goes against the right established by the Statute, which states that no citizen can be discriminated against because of their language, and therefore it is necessary that the administrations be able to serve them in either language," it explains.

Gonellism in the Parliament

Le Senne denies the unity of the language

Reducing the use of Catalan in the Catalan Parliament is an obsession of its president, Gabriel Le Senne (Vox). He has agreed—with the support of the People's Party (PP) on the Bureau—that Vox's parliamentary questions will not be translated and that the conjunction 'and' will not be added between their surnames on screen. Furthermore, he has ordered that the Official Gazette of the Parliament be translated into Spanish—this new service is currently being implemented. In parallel, he is working on a change to the procedure so that the oral interventions of members of parliament, in which they can retain the definite article or use vocabulary not included in the official language—which he calls "Mallorcan" or "Balearic"—will remain uncorrected in the transcripts of the Parliamentary Records.

Last Thursday, the University of the Balearic Islands (UIB) sent a non-binding report to the Parliament rejecting the terms "Mallorcan language" and "Balearic language" used by Vox. "The scientific and official name of the Islands' own language is Catalan," the text emphasizes. "Nor can one speak of translating a supposed Mallorcan or Balearic language into Catalan, given that it is the same language," the document continues, defending the maintenance of formal register in Parliament's communications. "One of the strengths of Catalan is that it has ten million speakers," Sorolla points out, warning that movements that deny the unity of Catalan always have an interest in "segregating" it.

More Spanish in the councils

Aid to entities like the OCB is being eliminated

The Menorca Island Council has also taken a detour in its language policy, disregarding its internal advisory service and the Menorcan Institute of Studies (IME). The PP government and the independent councilor Maite de Medrano, expelled from Vox, introduced Castilian Spanish and "forms specific to Menorcan" into the institution's Regulations on Linguistic Use. "The equivalent of 'gonella' in Mallorca is 'salado' in Menorca," explains Pelegrí, who is part of the IME and also a teacher. He also raises the concept of 'differentialism,' an "attitude that seeks to emphasize the elements of a language that mark differences between its varieties." "In the specific case of Menorca, movements have recently emerged that place great emphasis on the article 'salado' as a differentiating, genuine, and characteristic element of a supposed Menorcan language, when it is not the only article we use in the Islands, and, moreover, it is used in areas of the Valencian Community and Catalonia."

Regarding the Council of Mallorca, the PP and Vox government agreed to include awards for works in Spanish in the Mallorca Literary Creation Prizes. Furthermore, it has eliminated direct subsidies to the OCB (Mallorca Cultural Organization) and Jóvenes por la Llengua (Youth for Language). "This is direct persecution by Vox, which in 2023 already held a threatening press conference in front of our headquarters announcing that this was its intention," laments Llabrés.

Setbacks in the town halls

Palma changes its domain to '.es'

One of the first actions of the PP and Vox government in Palma was to change the domain of the City Council's website, which went from Palma.es to Palma.esA declaration of intent. The city councils where Vox has held sway have also taken steps to reduce the use of Catalan, especially Palma and Calvià—which celebrates Saint George's Day instead of Sant Jordi's—where bilingualism has been implemented as the norm. Like the Consell, the Palma City Council has also included Spanish in the Ciutat de Palma awards. Joan Vilallonga, a Catalan language teacher at the adult education center in Maó and linguistic advisor to the Mercadal City Council, emphasizes the "symbolic role" of many of these measures. "But the symbolic aspect is important, because it's being done to institutions that should be ensuring the validity, rigor, and seriousness of the language, and what they're doing is promoting its folklorization," he warns. "It undermines the institutional function of safeguarding Catalan," he concludes.