Flood of petitions against the language regulations of the Menorca councilor Gonella

CitadelThe Menorcan councilor Gonella has managed to unite everyone in opposition to his new language regulations. Only the organization he headed before entering politics, Sa Fundació, has expressed support. Conversely, the regulations, which introduce Spanish and prioritize Menorcan over Catalan in Menorca's highest institution, have prompted a flood of objections from organizations, political parties, and citizens alike, all responding to the public call to get involved in defending the unity of the language.

The Rector of the University of the Balearic Islands (UIB), Jaume Carot, has sent a letter of objection to the President of the Council of Menorca, Adolfo Vilafranca, demanding the annulment of the initial approval of the regulations for having disregarded the UIB's required report. The Rector points out that both the Statute of Autonomy and the Law on Linguistic Normalization recognize the University as "the official consultative institution for all matters relating to the Catalan language." Furthermore, he notes that the jurisprudence of the High Court of the Balearic Islands also supports the "mandatory" nature of its opinions. The UIB's Technical Advisory Committee recently objected to the terms of the grant program, which prioritize the use of Menorcan when awarding subsidies to promote Catalan in the business, sports, publishing, and community sectors. The Platform for the Language, Menorca Cultural Action, the Balearic Cultural Foundation, the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party), Más por Menorca (More for Menorca), the Federation of Neighborhood Associations, the CCOO and STEI unions, and Pilar Vinent, who for 40 years was in charge of the Linguistic Advisory Service (SAL), have denounced the "lack of protection" for Catalan that the new regulation entails. But the most striking rejection has come from within the institution itself. The Scientific Council of the Menorcan Institute of Studies (IME), a public body attached to the Presidency of the Council of Menorca, has approved a strong resolution against the regulation. Its president, the jurist and writer Josep Maria Quintana, has sent a letter to President Adolfo Vilafranca requesting that he "reconsider" the regulations and "open a dialogue with the relevant bodies to restore the spirit of consensus and respect for scientific knowledge that should guide any action in linguistic matters."

In this document, Quintana expresses his "concern about the content and the procedures" used to process the new text and accuses the Minister of Culture, Education, and Youth, Joan Pons Torres, of having "broken the consensus that allowed the approval of the Statute and the Language Normalization Law." The regulations that Pons Torres intends to impose open the door to outsourcing part of the Linguistic Advisory Service and place the application, previously overseen by a monitoring committee (which he is now eliminating), solely in his hands. Quintana considers this a "serious" matter, as is the "unjustified" disregard for the required opinions of the University of the Balearic Islands (UIB), the Language Advisory Service (SAL), and the Language and Literature Section of the Balearic Islands Institute of Language (IME). The regulation – he emphasizes – is "biased," "lacking in rigor, and jeopardizes the appropriate presence of Catalan in formal administrative settings. It represents a setback in normalization and departs from both the current legal framework and the social and institutional consensus that has historically supported it."

Over the weekend, during the opening ceremony of the new academic year at the IME, Quintana and Pons Torres met, but there were no recriminations from the minister. He only subtly requested "reciprocity" in institutional respect. This Monday, he also used irony and shared on his social media the joke posted by the comedian Zaca in the Menorca Dailywhere the Més spokesperson is seen asking for his resignation for the third time.

The coordinator of Més per Menorca, Esteve Barceló, believes that the reform "does not respond to any real need of the citizens, but rather to an ideological agenda that uses language as a political weapon." Barceló justified the demand for Pons Torres's resignation by stating that "when a decision generates rejection from the scientific community, the cultural sector, and even the Consell's own advisory bodies, someone must take responsibility. Menorca cannot allow far-right ideas to once again turn the Catalan language into a political battleground."

Before the deadline for submitting arguments, the PSOE also presented its position at the same Council headquarters. It warned of "serious irregularities" in the process and, as the IME had already done, accused the PP government of "wanting to abandon the broad consensus that led to the approval of the Law of Linguistic Normalization."

The Socialists have filed 10 complaints, arguing that the modification was carried out incorrectly and incompletely from a legal and procedural standpoint, and have accused Minister Pons Torres of being "a denier of vaccines, climate change, and now also of the linguistic unity of Catalan." Minister Edu Robsy has compared the regulation to the failed express modification of the PTI (Territorial Plan of Catalonia) and cited them as examples of "the traps and shortcuts the governing team seeks to omit essential procedures and eliminate guarantees." In this regard, he lamented the "systematic lack of dialogue" between Minister Pons and President Vila, the far-right party, who ignore the rules of the game and deny scientific reality.