Questions and answers on the language conflict, its judicial twists and turns and the division in the street

The harassment of the family of Canet for requesting more lessons in Spanish in their 5-year-old son’s school has exploded in the midst of the historic ruling of the High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) that overturns immersion and imposes two subjects in Spanish throughout the education system. A landmark ruling, which creates doctrine and which has been intertwined with a private petition on behalf of a 5-year-old child from the coastal town who attends P5 at the Turó del Drac public school.

The case has taken to the streets after a strong campaign of harassment and bullying of the child by radical pro-independence supporters, which has led the affected family to seek judicial protection and the Assembly for a Bilingual School to file a complaint with the Public Prosecutor’s Office. A conflict, linguistic and social, with doubts, questions and questions to be resolved.

The judicial process: What is the origin of the conflict?

The Canet family followed the usual procedure followed by citizens who want more Spanish for their children in Catalonia: formally requesting it from the Generalitat – which denies the requests – and then initiating a judicial process to achieve it via the TSJC. It demanded 50% in Spanish and the court ruling, dated 14 October, left it at 25%. In total, the AEB quantifies more than 2,300 Catalan pupils who have received at least one more core subject in Spanish than just Spanish literature, based on individual rulings in recent years.

Immersion, overturned?

Yes, but because of another Supreme Court ruling, which came out in the meantime, specifically on 23 November, when it rejected the Generalitat’s appeal and thus endorsed the TSJC’s ruling ordering the application of 25% of Spanish in the entire education system. This is a framework that the pro-independence movement is using to stir up the debate once again and stir up the streets in favour of a common cause: Catalan.

When did the controversy erupt?

The controversy erupted coinciding with the long Puríssima long weekend. One of the sparks was on the social networks: some parents of the Turó del Drac school in Canet de Mar created a Twitter profile from which they called for action to prevent the application of the sentence and did not rule out not taking their children to classes taught in Spanish. Other users called for the child to be isolated, left alone in class and left alone. Then there is the message from the pro-independence tweeter, Jaume Fàbrega, who called for the stoning of the minor’s house. “I’m in favour of stoning this child’s house. Let them leave Catalonia. We don’t want Castilian supremacists who hate us.”, said Fàbrega, a former professor at the UAB who taught Gastronomy and Oenology in the Tourism degree and who had to resign from his post in 2018 for xenophobic messages against Ciudadanos.

The plan for a 20-class primary school

Since Thursday 9, the Turó del Drac pupils of the youngest group – not the whole centre – receive six and a half hours a week of education in Spanish dedicated to visual arts, plastic arts and psychomotor skills. The rest, 75% of the school time, continues to be in Catalan. On Thursday, at the school, several parents gave their opinions on the case and highlighted the conflict and division.

And the Generalitat?

The resolution was addressed, as in all cases, to the school management, which has applied the 25% decreed by the TSJC. The Generalitat, of course, has abandoned the harassed family and has even met with the school, has clamoured against the court ruling and has encouraged the protests. The parties that make up the Government – plus the CUP – took part in the demonstration against Castilian in the vicinity of the school.

What legal measures have been taken?

Vox, Hablamos Español and the AEB have filed complaints with the Public Prosecutor’s Office against the campaign of harassment against the child at the school in Canet de Mar. Also the AEB against the minister and other officials of the Department of Education for the crime of obstruction of justice so that the resolutions of the courts are not complied with. For its part, the High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) has ordered the Ministry of Education of the Generalitat and the management of the school Turó del Drac in the Barcelona town “to adopt the necessary measures to preserve the protection and privacy” of the family in the face of the campaign of harassment for having asked for a higher percentage of Spanish in class, specifically 25%.

The protection of the family’s identity

The finger-pointing goes on and on. On the same day, Friday, a Catalan digital media of the pro-independence left published a brief three-line note with the hypothetical identity of the child’s father. In the text appeared the name and surname, the political party and the profession according to “it is reported by whatsapp groups”, the media only contributed. Other information about other alleged family businesses has also appeared on social networks. The association Hablamos Español has reported it to the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the AEB has informed the “competent authorities”.