Carlos Mazón: "The Linguistic Predominance of Alicante is Not Up for Debate"

There continues to be a back-and-forth over the proposal approved by the Alicante City Council to remove Alicante from the Valencian-speaking zone, as proposed by Vox. This Friday, it was the turn of the President of the Generalitat, Carlos Mazón, who stated that he sees "no significant contradiction," in fact, "none," between the PP of Alicante city and that of the Provincial Council.

The popular leader thus ended the controversy over the exchange of statements. On one side, the PP supported in the Alicante City Council last week this proposal that urged Les Corts to remove this municipality as a Valencian linguistic predominance territory and include it as Spanish in the Llei d'Ús i Ensenyament del Valencià.

Meanwhile, in the Provincial Council, the popular party voted this week in favor of a motion presented by Compromís "in defense of the official status of Valencian" in the Alicante capital and as a "condemnation" of "linguistic persecution."

In statements to the media this Friday in Alicante, when asked about this issue, the head of the Consell assured that he sees "no significant contradiction" between both positions. "What I do see is a big change in the city of Alicante," he claimed, where "for the first time, mothers and fathers can choose the language of instruction for their children." "That didn't happen before," he noted.

Thus, he defended that precisely thanks to the Educational Freedom Law approved by the PP and Vox in Les Corts, "mothers and fathers in Alicante can choose." "I couldn't choose the language of instruction for my children, but now mothers and fathers can, and thanks to the Educational Freedom Law, there is freedom, which is the most important thing," he emphasized.

Meanwhile, regarding initiatives and motions "like those proposed in the Alicante City Council" concerning the linguistic predominance territory, which he assured he "knows" from the last legislature, he pointed out that the Generalitat must be "extraordinarily respectful of municipal autonomy" and with "the declarations that each of the municipalities can launch."

"The truth is that at this moment, that issue is not on the table, from a competence point of view, because addressing such a matter requires a series of sociological technical studies that are not currently on the table," he admitted, regarding the declaration approved in the Alicante council. In any case, he insisted on showing "total respect" for the "initiative of the different municipalities."