The Supreme Court overturns in Catalonia a exclusion of Spanish from schools imposed by the PP also in Galicia

The discrimination against Spanish in education in some regions of Spain is an illegal situation repeatedly pointed out by the Justice system.

Feijóo repeats an educational and linguistic promise that he already broke in Galicia
Freedom defeats social engineering: Spanish is now the most widely spoken language in Galicia

The exclusion of Spanish from school signage in Catalonia

This Monday, the Administrative Chamber of the Supreme Court issued a ruling on a 2022 provision by the Catalan government's Department of Education. This regulation stated that "the signage in school spaces must be in Catalan; in Occitan, in Aran, and in Catalan Sign Language if applicable, which are the reference languages ​​of the education system." Thus, the Catalan government excluded Spanish from school signage, which is the most widely spoken official language in Catalonia and the systematic target of discriminatory policies from both separatist parties and the PSC socialists.

The Supreme Court points out that this exclusion is incompatible with the Constitution

The ruling states: "It is not the same, in terms of the understanding conveyed to students, for a physical space to have signs and posters only in one of the two languages ​​of the corresponding Autonomous Community. In short, the language used in the signage of educational centers is not irrelevant to teaching."

The Supreme Court recalls that "Castilian is an official language throughout Spain, which means —among other things —that it cannot be excluded from communications between public authorities and citizens. Therefore, signs and notices that allow people to find their way around buildings belonging to the Administration—such as, undoubtedly, publicly owned schools and institutes—constitute a means of communicating with individuals who access them. Hence, it cannot be argued that they are outside the framework of linguistic co-officiality. This means that excluding the use of Castilian Spanish for these purposes is not respectful of Article 3 of the Constitution, not to mention that it could introduce an unjustified difference in treatment regarding language for the purposes of Article 14 of the Constitution itself."

An exclusion imposed by the PP in Galicia

This ruling not only exposes the discriminatory treatment of Spanish in Catalonia, but also in Galicia. The coalition government formed by the socialists of the PSdeG-PSOE and the separatists of the BNG approved a decree in 2007 whose Article 2.1 excluded Spanish from the educational administration, in the following terms: "The Galician educational administration, the educational centers dependent on it and the personnel in its service will, in general, use the Galician language." That decree generated protests in the educational community due to its discriminatory provisions against Spanish speakers. Echoing those protests, the People's Party and its then candidate for the presidency of the Galician government, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, made a commitment to "linguistic freedom" which they betrayed after the March 2009 elections, in which that candidate became president of the Xunta.

In May 2010, the new regional government of the PP (People's Party) approved a new decree on "multilingualism" which, despite its misleading title, maintained the exclusion of Spanish in educational administration in its Article 3.1: "In the Galician educational administration and in publicly funded schools, the Galician language will be used in general." This provision is applied by excluding Spanish from signage in publicly funded schools, public spaces, which are exclusively in Galician, despite the fact that Galicia has two official languages: Galician and Spanish.

La sentencia publicada hoy por el Tribunal Supremo no sólo choca con la exclusión en español en Cataluña, una política discriminatoria de la que muchos medios de comunicación suelen hacerse eco, sino también con la exclusión del español en Galicia, una situación que la amplia mayoría de los medios silencian de forma sistemática. Al igual que ocurre en Cataluña, se da la paradoja de que esas políticas de exclusión se hacen en Galicia contra una lengua, el español, que es la más hablada en esta región. Cabe recordar que el Estatuto de Autonomía de Galicia señala en su Artículo 5 la oficialidad del gallego y del castellano y añade: "Nadie podrá ser discriminado por razón de la lengua". Una afirmación convertida en papel mojado por el nacionalismo lingüístico impuesto por el PP, el PSOE y el BNG desde el gobierno regional.

The Supreme Court's ruling today not only clashes with the exclusion of Spanish in Catalonia, a discriminatory policy that many media outlets frequently report on, but also with the exclusion of Spanish in Galicia, a situation that the vast majority of media systematically ignore. As in Catalonia, there is a paradox: these exclusionary policies are being implemented in Galicia against Spanish, the most widely spoken language in the region. It is worth remembering that the Statute of Autonomy of Galicia establishes in its Article 5 the official status of Galician and Spanish and adds: "No one may be discriminated against on the grounds of language." A statement rendered meaningless by the linguistic nationalism imposed by the PP, the PSOE and the BNG from the regional government.

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Photo: Partido Popular. The current president of the Galician government, Alfonso Rueda (on the left), alongside his predecessor in that position, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, current national president of the Popular Party.