The PP takes a turn in Menorca against standard Catalan

BrickThe Menorca Island Council has taken a shortcut in its language policy, disregarding both its internal advisory service (SAL) and the leading academic body (the Menorcan Institute of Studies). The PP government and independent councilor Maite de Medrano, expelled from Vox, used their combined majority to fulfill the first agreement of their pact and introduce Spanish and "the distinctive forms of Menorcan" into the institution's Regulations on Linguistic Use. The plenary session approved this Monday, despite staunch opposition, a measure that fundamentally modifies 18 of the 27 articles of the regulations that had been in force since 2016. The proposal, which equates Spanish with Catalan in many administrative cases and prioritizes Menorcan, has not been implemented until a year later, as a consequence of the pact with the former Vox councilor that allowed the PP to pass the budget for next year. Joan Pons, who before entering politics directed Sa Fundació and promoted the use of island dialects over standard Catalan, has even eliminated the monitoring committee, composed of technicians and unions, which until now oversaw the application of the regulations, transferring control to himself. This measure, which even the department's own legal advisor has not validated in her required report, has nevertheless been included in the regulations. Among other changes, the new regulations propose the possibility of partially outsourcing the institution's language service or using Spanish for signage "when the sociolinguistic context so advises," and stipulate that all regulations and resolutions, as well as the tender specifications and the website itself, must be published simultaneously in Catalan and Spanish.

It also prioritizes the use of Menorcan in personal and telephone communications, as well as in magazines, reports, posters, publications, notices, advertisements, and institutional advertising. The councilor, who upon being appointed to the position announced that he would promote the declaration of Menorcan as intangible cultural heritage, intends for the island variety to be recognized as "a cultural asset that is a source of unity and not discord."

Rejection by citizen groups

Even so, Pons has found no public support beyond that of his party, the PP, and his organization, Sa Fundació. On the contrary, he has faced rejection from citizen groups such as Fem-ho en Català. "Language cannot be a political bargaining chip," concludes this platform, which accuses the Consell government of "inventing a non-existent problem" of discrimination against Spanish. Furthermore, they fear that concentrating oversight solely in the hands of the Conseller "will lead to complete opacity in decision-making. We are," they say, "facing a frontal and unacceptable attack against Catalan."

Unfazed by the criticism, the councilor responded to the controversy by clarifying that the institution "will continue to use Catalan as its own language, but will prioritize the use of Menorcan, as dictated by the Statute of Autonomy, and without renouncing Spanish for those citizens who request it. The debate," he clarified, "is about our great linguistic heritage, before it's too late." In his view, excessive alarmism was created, and those who opposed a measure favoring the island variety were accused of being "radical."

Councilor Maite de Medrano, who expedited its approval, says that the objective is not to guarantee the co-official status of Catalan and Spanish, "but of Menorcan and Spanish, the language spoken by 600 million people worldwide and which is as much, if not more, characteristic of the people of Menorca." "a language from another community that has been imposed on us as our own." De Medrano says that "the Catalan Countries do not exist, nor is our language Catalan." That the Statute still stipulates this is a consequence of the betrayal we suffered in the 1980s." The independent councilor rejects "Catalan imperialism, which forces the entire administration to be in Catalan, and linguistic normalization, which is absurd and nonsensical, preventing true freedom of language choice."

Both interventions provoked a reaction from the spokesperson for Més per Menorca, Noemí García, who confessed that "not even three gin and tonics" would be enough to swallow this discourse, which she claims has grafted the PP (People's Party) onto the far right. "They're adopting forms of Menorcan that we've never even used here, a linguistic posturing to spice everything up, with which they really intend for Catalan to cease being the language of reference in Menorca." For the Més councilor, "what they want is to use Menorcan as a weapon to dismantle linguistic normalization." And they do so without invoking any social demands, since no one is discriminated against for speaking Castilian Spanish.

It's about perverting the Menorcan language with the aim of causing a setback for it." The PSOE tried to table the proposal, arguing that the procedure had been "incorrect and rushed" and had ignored the required prior public consultation, but they were unsuccessful. "There is no regulatory change that justifies it," warned Councilor Edu Robsy, given the evidence that "the PP has given in to Vox's demands. They are doing what even President Prohens herself never dared to do."