Mallorca intones 'La Balanguera' in unison for the first time in history

Palma100 years after the death of Joan Alcover, Mallorca has once again sung with one voice La Balanguera, the island's official anthem for three decades. Thousands of people gathered in the Plaça Major in Palma, while dozens of municipalities simultaneously replicated the same scene in a mobilization promoted by the Obra Cultural Balear (OCB), a historic entity in defense of the Catalan language and culture. It also played in educational centers and Eroski chain supermarkets.

The commemoration has had the support of the main Balearic institutions, despite the fact that Marga Prohens' government has been harshly criticized by the educational and cultural sectors for its linguistic policies. Among these measures are the Linguistic Segregation Plan in classrooms, the elimination of the Catalan requirement for teachers in positions of very difficult coverage and also for part of the health personnel. Added to this is the withdrawal of subsidies to the OCB, which, nevertheless, has maintained institutional collaboration in the centenary events.

In Plaça Major, the president of OCB, Antoni Llabrés, and Miquela Lladó, from Música Nostra, have claimed that even though society has changed, there is a thread that cannot be broken: "That of our own language and culture, the thread of our identity".  According to their claims, La Balanguera "does not sing the nostalgia of an immobilized past". "It sings the responsibility to continue weaving. It reminds us that the future is not improvised: it is built with consciousness, with perseverance and with collective will", they pointed out. 

Educational centers, and also the UIB, have thrown themselves into the commemoration. More than 250 schools and institutes –the majority public ones– have performed La Balanguera after weeks of rehearsals with students and teachers. Public school, traditionally linked to the defense of teaching in Catalan, has been the majority in participation in the events.

At the central educational event, held at the Misericordia cultural center (Palma) organized by OCB, five public and four subsidized schools participated. One of them, Santa Mònica, which is part of the linguistic segregation plan agreed between PP and Vox, an initiative that, in practice, reduces the weight of Catalan within classrooms. In the case of Mare Alberta, the other major participating Catholic subsidized school, its choir performed the piece on stage and even with microphones.

The OCB and institutions governed by the PP – in some cases, with the support of Vox – have shared symbolic spaces and moments such as the massive singing of La Balanguera, turned into an expression of defense of Mallorcan identity and its own language and culture. However, this image of consensus coexists with a climate of strong political and social confrontation surrounding the language, which the singing cannot hide.

Since the PP came to power with the support of Vox, the main Balearic institutions have promoted several measures that cultural entities, unions, and opposition parties interpret as a setback for Catalan and for the organizations working in its defense.

Marga Prohens' government has eliminated the Catalan language requirement in Public Healthcare and, with the argument of facilitating the coverage of vacant positions, has turned it into a mere merit for doctors and nurses. The decision provoked protests from unions, cultural entities, and opposition parties, who warned of a possible violation of patients' linguistic rights. In fact, the OCB took it to the Constitutional Court.

In the educational sphere, the regional executive has also promoted the linguistic segregation plan agreed with Vox, which introduces separate groups by language and reduces the weight of Catalan as the vehicular language in classrooms. Only 19 centers have joined the initiative, all Catholic subsidized centers. The measure has been widely contested by a significant part of the educational community and by entities defending the language, who denounce that the model breaks the linguistic consensus built over decades. The OCB also took it to the courts.

In parallel, the Government has relaxed the linguistic requirements for some teachers in positions of very difficult coverage, which allows some professionals to access public service without proving knowledge of Catalan. The OCB has even filed legal challenges against some of these measures, especially against the elimination of the linguistic requirement in Healthcare.

The Palma City Council, also governed by the PP, has been accused by the OCB of sidelining Catalan in various municipal areas. Public companies such as the EMT have advertised job openings without requiring knowledge of Catalan, despite them being public services. According to the OCB, these decisions hinder citizens' right to be served in Catalan and represent a setback in language normalization policies.

Regarding the Consell de Mallorca, various entities and unions have criticized the reduction of institutional support for Catalan promotion policies and, especially, the economic cuts to historical cultural organizations. In 2024, the Consell reduced by 25% the direct subsidies allocated to Obra Cultural Balear (OCB) and Joves de Mallorca per la Llengua. The aid to Joves de Mallorca per la Llengua went from 60,000 to 45,000 euros, while that for OCB was reduced from 50,000 to 35,000 euros.

The decision generated strong controversy because Vox had publicly called for the complete elimination of aid to entities that promote Catalan. Tensions increased further with the 2026 budgets, when the Consell de Mallorca approved, with the votes of the PP and Vox, the suppression of direct subsidies to OCB and Joves de Mallorca per la Llengua.

Both entities denounced that the withdrawal of aid sought to economically weaken the main groups defending the Catalan language in Mallorca. Both OCB and Joves de Mallorca per la Llengua have been particularly active against the language segregation plan and against the language policies promoted by the Government.