“The break touches the country, it destroys politics”Jordi Pujol originally came to refer to the fact that when the time for political action comes, it is time to shape or build the appropriate conditions for them to be fertile ground on which to take effect. As can be seen, the political project that left its mark and built the present Catalonia. Without this “fer país”, subsequent political actions would not have been considered out of context and improvisation, without the conscious and organized cultural stake that implied not only linguistic but also a cultural identity even though the conditions were historical and fair.
Language policy in our country is undoubtedly one of the most controversial and divergent aspects to emerge between different ideological positions and has become one of the hallmarks of the left, especially of Compromís. I say this because other political options like the People’s Party lack language policy, let’s say they entrust language to the law of supply and demand, a way of letting the minority language die. To see what we think about the future and how the question of language can become a polarizing double weapon, it is enough to take a look at the space devoted to this topic in different electoral programs and the terms in which it is addressed. No matter how legitimate and historically curative the reasons are, it’s edged with unforeseen consequences.
The Valencian reality clearly has nothing to do with the Catalan reality, and our route and path cannot be compared with all that they have in common. Wanting to implement a homogeneous language policy in the community based largely on access and promotion requirements within the Public Function seems to me a flawed policy because it’s out of context, improvised and uprooted, skipping anyway, the previous “fer country” step. Beyond the question of whether knowledge of both official languages should be a requirement or merit in any selective process for access to the Civil Service, the question lies in the way language policy is implemented, whether inclusive or exclusionary. If it is based on its promotion and recognition or punishment for its absence, we are no longer talking about its use, but about its certification. The Decree, which regulates multilingualism in the Valencian education system with all its weaknesses, proposes an inclusive and progressive treatment that takes into account the social and cultural context of the Valencia region; However, in previous years, we have witnessed unfair decisions such as freezing intermediate education jobs for failing to accredit knowledge of Valencian after serving at the required place and time and meeting the needs of the Ministry. It doesn’t seem like a smart or effective “fer país” way. The message is not clear to me either, when on the last call to become a professor of secondary education, in addition to the mandatory requirement of knowledge of Valencian, the titles of complementary knowledge of the Valencian language are valued. more than having the highest academic qualification in the form of a doctorate in the specialty. I don’t understand the reasoning and I don’t think it contributes to “individual country”.
The language question must go hand in hand with the cultural question, and in this sense culture is one of the issues that is largely missing in political debates and largely in electoral programmes. One of the aspects that always strikes me most about the education systems of other European countries is how they fully incorporate local and regional culture into their curricula where students have the opportunity to learn, inherit, experience, without nationalist phobias or stereotypes. and they express themselves through their own cultural expression and of course they are proud of it, without complexes, creating a sense of collective awareness and belonging, without ideological overtones beyond their inherent critical updating in a modern society with inclusive and democratic values. .
We can subdue the norm, even force us to use something as valuable as getting a job in the Civil Service, but we won’t be able to make a country with it alone, maybe we’re not leaving anything in the way and we’re not getting anywhere. we want.