Despite the participation of only a few thousand people in the demonstration of the organisation „Escuela para Todos“ (School for All) in Barcelona to enforce at least 25% Spanish teaching in Catalan schools, the Spanish mainstream media reported favourably. The organisation „Hablamos Español“, which supported this demonstration locally and with additional actions in 13 Spanish cities and in Brussels, was not mentioned anywhere to my knowledge.

„Hablamos Español“ had supported this demonstration, although it considers 25% Spanish instruction only as a minimum demand and demands the right to freedom of choice of language in all regions of Spain. One scoffer at the rainy support action in Valencia (picture) even said that 25% Spanish, that sounded like the demand of slaves for fewer lashes.

How could the situation be assessed?

There were impressive demonstrations with hundreds of thousands of participants for Catalonia's independence from Spain in the past. On 11 September this year, however, only 150,000 gathered for the Diada, the separatists' quasi national holiday in Barcelona. The Assemblea Nacional Catalana (ANC = National Assembly of Catalonia) „fomented the rupture with the political parties“ because of their restrained demands for independence, El País said.

If one now expected a strong turnout at the demonstration of the „Escuela para Todos“, one had to be disappointed in view of the „few“ thousands.

A person in charge of „Hablamos Español“ from Valencia told me: „Behind the 'Escuela para Todos' are political parties. They defend compulsory bilingual education, which is another form of language imposition. „Hablamos Español“ does not defend this, we defend the free choice of language, and this clashes with bilingualism and percentages.

Yesterday we put up our banner for freedom of language choice, but neither the organisers nor the politicians liked it because all the parties, PP and PSOE, don't want freedom of language choice, only Vox supports us. On the other hand, all or almost all media are paid by the political parties, so we are hardly mentioned.“

In fact, the possibilities of divisions in Spain seem unlimited according to the motto „divide et impera“ (divide and rule). As recently as 16.09.22 El Mundo reported: „The PP proposes (for the Valencian community) a trilingual model: Basic Valencian, Basic Castilian and only Castilian in Castilian-speaking areas.“ So the expectation is that the corresponding areas of Valencia will no longer participate in actions for freedom of choice of language.

To understand the PP better, one should also know that the current leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, as President of Galicia, is the leading figure of the language imposition of Galician in Galicia.

Interesting in this context is also the remark of a demonstrator in Valencia that the USA supports separatism everywhere in the world, secretly or openly, because world domination would be easier for them with many smaller states. He referred to the fear of many Spaniards of suffering the same fate as in Yugoslavia. However, this also remains an open question in view of the fact that the influence of the USA in Spain is nowhere near as great as in Germany, for example. Spain's ties with Cuba and other South and Central American states bear witness to this.

Many unanswered questions that probably still need time to be answered and I don't have the answer. Except: Let's use this time to continue and support the fight against language imposition and unjustified separatism, not only in Spain.