“We must foster and protect Catalan and be very clear about who our fellow travellers are, whether they are those who have always defended it, or those who aim accusations at Catalan schooling,” warned Josep-Maria Jové

The leader of the Esquerra Republicana parliamentary group Josep-Maria Jové warned on Wednesday that the social use of Catalan has fallen seven percentage points in fifteen years, and assured that Catalonia is “in a language alert.” Faced with this, he enjoined the President of the Catalan Generalitat government, Salvador Illa, to defend and protect the Catalan language and to fight “without reserve, standing firm” against linguistic discriminations such as those seen recently in the country’s health centres.

In question time in Parliament, Mr Jové called for Catalan to become a language of regular use “everywhere,” making it “useful,” facilitating its acquisition and opening it up to all society: “To those who were born here, to those who have come down the line and to all those who have decided to live in Catalonia and make Catalonia their country.”

And he recalled that, for many young people, contact with the Catalan language “is only limited to school, and not even then.” In Barcelona, ​​for example, Catalan as a common language among young people has dropped from 46% to 28% in less than thirty years.

To reverse this situation, he argued that “Catalan must be alive in the streets, on social networks, on audiovisual platforms and in computer games, that the recovery of Super3 [children’s TV] and the work of revitalizing from the CCMA must continue.” “This was the crash programme of the last parliament after years of neglect and abandonment of active policies in favour of Catalan,” he recalled.

In addition, Mr Jové criticized the fact that 4,000 people are on the waiting list to learn Catalan: “If there are so many people willing to learn our language, we must take advantage of the opportunity,” he said. In this regard, he called on Mr Illa to defend Catalan “with urgency, with resources, and above all with a determined and unambiguous attitude.” “We must foster and protect Catalan and be very clear about who our fellow travellers are, whether they are those who have always defended it, or those who aim accusations at Catalan schooling,” he closed on a strong note.

Thoughts for the victims of the storm floods

At the start of his speech, Mr Jové expressed Esquerra Republicana’s solidarity with the victims of the cold-core cyclone that has hit in the Valencian Country and Castile-La Mancha, especially for the families of the deceased. He also thanked all the first responders and volunteers for their work.