Manacor hosts the first meeting of municipalities in Mallorca that want to encourage the use of Catalan

The Manacor Conservatory will host the first meeting of municipalities in Mallorca called "Active for Catalan" this Saturday. The event, which will take place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., is part of the ImpliCAT Network, which extends to municipalities throughout the Balearic Islands. The meeting will feature two roundtables. The first will address the use of Catalan among children and young people and will be presented by the Pollença City Council, with a study on language use among youth and other initiatives to promote its social use in the municipality. This presentation will be given by Joana Xamena, Deputy Mayor and Councilor for Linguistic Normalization. The subsequent discussion will include Josep Ferrà, Mayor and Head of the Language Policy Department of the Esporles City Council, and Adrià Argüés, Deputy Mayor and Councilor for Sports, Youth, and Festivals, representing the Algaida City Council. The second panel will focus on the role of Catalan as a language of rootedness and cohesion. Sebastià Llodrà, Deputy Mayor and Councillor for the Environment and Mobility of the Manacor City Council, will speak about "Manacor from a normal perspective." The subsequent three-way debate will feature Miquel Font, Linguistic Normalization Officer of the Alcúdia City Council, and Xisca Mir, Coordinator of the Education and Environment departments of the Inca City Council. ImpliCAT Network

Plataforma per la Llengua (Platform for the Language), an organization that has been working for over 30 years to promote the use of Catalan in all areas, launched a municipal project in the context of the local elections of May 28, 2023. Since then, it has advised and supported dozens of municipalities in the design and implementation of policies. The project has gradually taken shape, becoming the ImpliCAT Network of municipalities actively promoting Catalan. In this context, the organization has held two workshops on municipal language policy in Catalonia, with the aim of bringing together and coordinating initiatives, sharing successful experiences, and explaining some useful tools. At the most recent workshop, held last June, a municipality from the Balearic Islands (Manacor) and one from the Valencian Community (Villarreal) also participated, providing a more comprehensive view of the linguistic landscape. This new conference, the first of its kind in the Balearic Islands, aims to become a meeting point for elected officials, technical staff, and citizens involved in promoting municipal language policy, serving as a foundation for continued coordinated progress in this area. "Local councils are the institutions closest to the citizens, with a true understanding of the sociolinguistic and sociodemographic realities of each town and city, aware of and knowledgeable about their idiosyncrasies and particularities," the organization explains. "That is why Plataforma per la Llengua (Platform for the Language) considers it crucial to provide municipalities with more tools to promote the social use of Catalan, as well as to create networks and collaborations among the stakeholders already working in this area," they stated.