Mazón on the Change of Linguistic Predominance in Alicante: "Without a Real Study, the Generalitat Has Little to Say"

President of the Generalitat Valenciana, Carlos Mazón, has expressed caution regarding the recent declaration approved by the Alicante City Council to designate the city as a Spanish-speaking territory. For Mazón, this decision should be understood as an "initiative of municipal autonomy" to which the regional administration "has little to say" without a "real and technical study."

He stated this in remarks to the media after visiting the Campanar health complex on Friday, a day after the City Council's plenary session approved the institutional declaration with the support of the PP and Vox. With this, the council urges Les Corts to "remove the municipality of Alicante as a Valencian-speaking territory and include it as a Spanish-speaking territory in the Llei d'Ús i Ensenyament del Valencià."

For the head of the Consell, "these proposals may have more or less interest in reflecting on them." In any case, he continued, "without a real, technical, sociological, and updated linguistic study, the Generalitat has little to say in this regard." "There is a law, and the law is followed," he assured.

In any case, he assured that he understands "initiatives that may arise at a given moment," but he emphasized that it is "technical rigor that must accompany us." "Meanwhile, I believe that the Generalitat should not comment on the initiatives of municipal autonomy that, of course, we respect," he concluded.

The declaration approved thanks to PP and Vox has faced opposition from citizen groups like Alacant pel Valencià, who describe the measure as a "linguistic offensive." They argue that declaring Alicante as a Spanish-speaking area implies "cutting the right to education in Valencian and, therefore, to properly learn the native and official language." They also claim it is "an attempt to undermine the rights of families who voted in favor of Valencian education in the recent consultation."

In response to this offensive, the 50 entities that make up Alacant pel Valencià denounce the attempt to "create conflict where there is none" and defend that forty years of Valencian education have allowed "a natural coexistence between the two official languages." They also announce that they will maintain mobilization to prevent Les Corts from modifying the Llei d'Ús i Ensenyament del Valencià and announce actions in support of Valencian for the first quarter of the next school year.