Laura Freixas, 18 December 2021
“The Government will be in the street next to the people of Catalonia,” declared its spokesperson, referring to today’s demonstration. Of course: the Government has to be with its people. There is only one small preliminary question: who are the people?
The demonstration is called by Som Escola. There is no doubt, Som Escola is people. But what about the Assembly for a Bilingual School in Catalonia? Is it also people? Is it people, but less, a second-rate people? Or an impostor, a false people? What a dilemma.
The Regional Minister of Education has promised to “protect” the director of the Canet school, who is addressed by the order of the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia that 25% of the teaching hours be taught in Spanish. The director is people. And the parents who asked for those hours of Spanish, understanding that this is what the law establishes? The minister has not promised anything to them. When the PSC has asked the Parliament to condemn “any threat or harassment” to students and families, the Government parties and their allies (ERC, Junts, CUP and Comus) have refused. It can be deduced that the parents who ask for the law to be applied are not people. If they are harassed, never mind, they deserve it for breaking the unity of “the people”. Because monolingual teaching in Catalan “guarantees social cohesion”, said the minister. What this “social cohesion” consists of and how is maintained, in light of the case of Canet and others (with families that ended up leaving), is quite clear.
The Minister of Education has promised to “protect” the director of the Canet school; he has not promised anything to the parents
Now that I think about it, for cases like this, when there is a conflict within the people (although the Regional Minister of Education thinks that there is no such thing: “There is no problem with the language”), the Baron de Montesquieu invented the separation of powers. This is how the rule of law works: the Executive must abide by the law, and in case of doubt about what the law requires, refer to the courts and abide by its resolutions. But how dare any lawyer to stand in the way of the people! In case of doubt, what our Catalan government applies is “article 26: do whatever you feel like”: “By article 26, the Catalan Government has attributions / I do what I damn well like / with all the laws of the country “. In the name, of course, of the people.
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