AVL’s creators warn of risk of restarting the battle for Valencia

Faced with the first controversial statements by José Antonio Rovira, Minister of Education, who was the first president of the Academia between 2001 and 2011, pointing out that the AVL does not have “the absolute truth about Valencia”, Ascensió Figueres of Castellón told this newspaper “AVL’ “The regulatory authority of the Community of Valencia cannot be questioned because it is recognized in the Statute of Autonomy of the Community of Valencia,” he said. After Rovira’s words, Massó arrived this Saturday.

Figueres recalled that when the AVL was created, “it was done precisely to dictate an agreed norm and all linguistic sensibilities were represented.” Reaching this consensus cost everyone a lot of effort and many resignations, and the conflict was pacified. Thus, the former head of the Academy, who holds a Spanish Philology and Law degree from UV, stated that “reopening it after 22 years is not the most prudent thing to do.”

The AVL, which was created by the agreement between the PP and PSPV-PSOE, chaired by former president Eduardo Zaplana and approved by the then Generalitat de Catalunya president Jordi Pujol, ensures the use of the Valencian language and defends this language. reporting on the name and organization, as well as the adaptation of texts produced by public bodies or requiring official approval to the language regulations of the Academy and the official production of the Community of Valencia.

Philologist Rafael Alemany of the University of Alicante, who also participated in the founding of the AVL, focuses on the legal obligation of administrations to make use of the “single” Valencian normative in existence, the “AVL normative”. “Doing anything else is going outside the law,” he says of Consell’s practices.

“It is the only organization with regulatory capacity. This is a statutory body, others are private entities. You may like it more or less, but objectively it is. And those who don’t like it change the Code,” says Villalonga.

The former minister questions that the new Consell is leaving the AVL’s authority in the air; he considers it a “provocation” with no signs of going further. “The law is what prevails in the rule of law. It’s not about me going in and doing whatever I want. Administrations are obliged to abide by the regulations of the AVL, which has powers and is also protected by the founding law that governs the people of Valencia. Everything is set, discuss it It is to play the game of those who want to distract attention from other issues”.

Risk of returning to the trenches

But beyond regulations or political intentions, Villalonga and Alemany warn of the social risks implied by the return to the trenches of language; AVL also made this point in its Friday statement. “It was a solved problem, I don’t know why we came back to something that didn’t contribute anything. Just split it, the creation of the AVL closed a debate we’ve been dragging for 45 years,” Villalonga complains.

Alemany, on the other hand, describes the PP and Vox Council’s request to “return to the cave for pure political tactics” as “great nonsense” and warns that these practices are “playing with fire”. “Representatives of both positions made an effort to come together and we achieved this with a significant amount of ‘trellat’ and common sense. Socially, a remarkable peace has been achieved in this regard without great effort and without overcoming many difficulties and misunderstandings. ‘ he thinks.