Preoccupation
In the Valencian Community, a batch of laws pushed through the regional council by a coalition of the Popular Party and Vox has sparked a wide range of responses. Among the most debated are the Educational Freedom Law, the Concord and Memory initiatives, and the policy surrounding À Punt. Stakeholders inside education, journalism, unions, and political parties are divided: some see the multilingual education framework as a targeted attack on Valencian, while others welcome the freedom to choose languages for study. Revisions tied to the Democratic Memory Act, already approved under Botànic governance, have drawn strong disapproval because revisiting the past invariably provokes controversy. The Union of Journalists warned that a PP-Vox proposal concerning À Punt could threaten its independence.
Support and Opposition Across Institutions
Meanwhile, Valencia’s regional president, Carlos Mazón, alongside the heads of the three provincial councils — Toni Pérez, Vicente Mompó, and Marta Barrachina — all affiliated with the PP, have gathered to secure backing for five legislative proposals presented this week in the Valencian Cortes. Mazón frames the debate as a choice between advancing freedom and concord and defending a memory that some view as biased. Pérez, for the Alicante Provincial Council, maintains that rights and freedoms that had been eroded during the previous administration have been restored.
Education Law: Language Rights and Challenges
The reactions from unions and advocacy groups to the Educational Freedom Law, which emphasizes the role of Spanish and Valencian in instruction and in non-language subjects, are among the most heated. The head of the Valencian Directors Association, Toni González Picornell, laments that the autonomous region with two co-official languages should be more fully consulted. He notes that Botànic-era reforms achieved notable progress for the educational system and that the current proposal risks rolling back those gains.
Concerns from Educational Leaders
Isabel Moreno, president of the Alicante branch of the Association of School Leaders, expressed surprise that the community’s educators were not consulted on legislation of such significance. She voices worry about the path the situation could take, arguing that language and schooling should be kept separate from political maneuvering. The association issued a statement criticizing its exclusion from the Valencian School Council deliberations.
The largest teaching union in the region also issued a statement this Friday, featuring remarks from its action coordinator, Marc Candela. He argues that the law rests on a clear political premise, marginalizes Valencian-language instruction, and ignores the sociolinguistic reality. He stresses that assumptions about social equality between Valencian and Spanish are false and that the policy fails to reflect actual conditions.
Escola Valenciana’s Ismael Vicedo adds that the measure seems designed to erode the native language. He warns that if media and audiovisual platforms achieved true parity between Valencian and Spanish, a different approach might be understandable. Until then, he considers the proposal an attempt to reframe equity as a political tool.
The debate also includes favorable assessments. Sonia Terrero, leader of Covapa and secretary-general of the Gabriel Miró Parents Association, welcomes the law as a long-sought concession that empowers families to choose their children’s language. She argues the reform benefits children with special educational needs and questions whether there will be sufficient teachers and school capacity to manage language-based assignments.
Prospects and Praise
Rafael Araújo, spokesperson for Concapa in the Valencian Community, offers a supportive view. He says the measure respects families and shields immigrant students and those with special needs by removing language barriers. It allows students to decide their language of study and examination, which he sees as a crucial step toward addressing the broader challenge of school failure.
The new Concord Law, which would overturn the Botànic-era Democratic Memory Act from 2017, also generated heated discussion. Miguel Mauri from Alicante’s Civic Commission for Historical Memory Recovery contends there is no real concord in the move and characterizes it as a revisionist attempt to blur responsibility for the past. He argues the measure would imply shared culpability and portrays the Republic as a failure, pointing fingers primarily at Vox.
Regression in Memory Policy
Vicente Carrasco of the Civic Commission describes the shift as a backward step for memory policy built up in recent years. José Joaquín Berbegal from Comisiones Obreras argues that the Concord Law serves as a maneuver to sweep away postwar misdeeds and blames ultranationalists in the regional government for those policies. The À Punt television initiative also drew scrutiny: while the Alicante Journalists Association awaits the content to form a view, the Union of Journalists argues the PP-Vox proposal threatens the network’s independence and creates uncertainty for staff and aspiring professionals.
On the political front, both PSPV-PSOE and Compromís weighed in again. Socialists described the council’s legislative push as a pathway toward potential corruption, while Compromís spokesperson Joan Baldoví accused PP and Vox of declaring a war on Valencian culture through these laws. Some observers warn that the current push could test the region’s delicate balance between linguistic autonomy and political unity.
In closing, readers are invited to stay informed as the Cortes Valencianas continue their discussions, weighing the tension between freedom of language choice and educational equity against a backdrop of memory and media independence. The evolving policy landscape in the Valencian Community remains a focal point for lawmakers, educators, journalists, and families alike. [Citation: regional press briefings and official statements, collected by multiple outlets].