Political upheaval pushed Catalan language to the backburner, says minister

After years of defending the Catalan language from behind the scenes, Francesc Xavier Vila, a university professor, has now taken charge of the newly created Ministry of Language Policy, making Catalan one of the government's main priorities.

In an interview with the Catalan News Agency (ACN), following the publication of a major survey showing a decline in the usage of the language, Vila acknowledged that the political upheaval around the 2017 independence push relegated the debate about Catalan into "second place."

This happened despite the fact that Catalonia was undergoing profound demographic changes, which pose a challenge if the language is to flourish.

"The public focus was elsewhere," he says. Now, the shift in the political situation has enabled "national cross-party alliances and agreements" that were "more difficult to achieve" in the past.

It's hard to "depoliticize" the language, because it’s a public matter, Vila says, "but at the very least we should de-ideologize it, because a language in a normal state is shared by everyone, regardless of their ideology," he argues.

The new ministry is a result of a deal between pro-independence Esquerra Republicana, who were previously in government, and the current Socialist administration.

Vila believes the current executive has shown "solid proof" of its commitment to the language.

Increasing the availability of Catalan courses

Despite progress, Vila believes more work needs to be done and stresses the need to make Catalan more accessible to all citizens, especially those for whom it is "more difficult" to connect with the language.

"We need to substantially increase the availability of Catalan courses at all levels, but with a primary focus on beginner and basic levels," he says.

He also advocates for going beyond that and creating "safe learning spaces," with the aim of encouraging broader society to "invite speakers" to use the language.

"The process of real integration into Catalan society must also include learning Catalan."

Catalan among young people

Catalan faces the biggest challenge among younger people. The survey reveals that Catalan is gaining speakers, but the number of new speakers is lower than the growth of the population.

Knowledge of Catalan is, on average, below knowledge of Spanish in all age groups, but particularly among the youngest.

For the minister, the situation can be explained by the higher exposure to Spanish in today's digital world, driven by screens and social networks. 

European status

Asked about the official status of Catalan in Europe, Vila argues that the language is already official on some level, because it is official in a member state. What is needed is for it to be recognized by European institutions. "Official status would clear up this ambiguity," he says.

It would also increase the "symbolic value" of the language, a milestone that would be "even more important outside of Catalonia than within" – in Catalan-speaking regions like La Franja (in Aragon), Alghero (Sardinia), or Northern Catalonia (France) – and would become "big news."