The plenary of the Balearic Parliament has rejected this Tuesday the bill of Vox that sought to declare Castilian as a vehicular language in education. The ‘no’ of the PP, added to that of PSIB, MÉS per Mallorca, Més per Menorca, Unidas Podemos and the deputy of the mixed group Llorenç Córdoba, has left Santiago Abascal’s party isolated and visibly upset with their partners in the Government.
Vox’s deputy spokesman, Sergio Rodriguez, called the day a “sad day” and accused the PP of “disloyalty” and “playing dirty”. “The House votes against freedom. The left carries it in its DNA, but that a conservative and liberal party does it we can not explain,” he lamented.
Rodriguez branded the PP’s alternative proposal as a “swindle” and a “gesture for the gallery”, reproaching the ‘popular’ that Vox has backed its budgets and spending ceilings “time and time again” without receiving the same loyalty in return.
On the part of the PP, Marga Duran defended that her proposal -registered a day earlier- complies “point by point” with the agreement reached with Vox on the vehicularity of Castilian and the promotion of the insular modalities of Catalan. “The text of Vox goes much further and aims to limit the autonomy of center. We cannot endorse a wording that clashes with the Statute, the law of normalization and the decree of minimums,” he said.
From the Vox seat, Manuela Cañadas muttered a resounding “what a shame”, while Rodríguez replied: “They have seen us looking like fools and they think they are going to convince us”.
Criticism from the left and nationalism
PSIB deputy Amanda Fernández considered that Vox’s initiative was “riddled with barbarities” and accused the PP of “facilitating these absurdities to become a reality”. “They hold their hands over their heads before Vox, but they push measures against their own language,” she said, alluding to the flexibilization of Catalan in public processes.
From MÉS per Mallorca, Maria Ramon accused the ultra-right of “hijacking the debate” and warned the PP: “Today’s vote is useless if tomorrow you go back to your knees”.
In the same vein, Joana Gomila, of Més per Menorca, defended that “the language that deserves protection is Catalan” and accused the PP of incoherence: “They say one thing and do the opposite with measures such as the language choice plan, which is segregation”.
For his part, the deputy of Unidas Podemos, José María García, insisted that “the process of linguistic normalization has not yet finished” and warned that eliminating the preponderance of Catalan would “liquidate” the progress achieved in the classrooms.
