Madrid asks Catalonia to pay 6,057 euros for every pupil being privately educated in Spanish

Spanish Education Minister Jose Ignacio Wert

The Spanish government is asking the Catalan Government to pay 6,057 euros annually for every pupil that enrols in private education in Spanish if there is no such an offer in the public system. Catalan is the main language of instruction in schools in Catalonia, but this has caused a conflict between the PP government and the Catalan executive that is now coming to a head. Madrid says that Catalonia should pay for this private education if it refuses to make Spanish the language of instruction together with Catalan. Recently, the State Council, the Spanish Government’s main advisory body, asked the Ministry of Education to “reconsider entirely” its decision.

The plan of the Spanish government is to pay the sum of 6,057 euros to every child enrolling in private education because his or her family is not satisfied with the linguistic offer in the public system. Afterwards, Madrid will ask Catalonia to pay this money back.

Irene Rigau warned that there are no private schools in Catalonia offering full education only in Spanish. “The move aims to create a new offer, it is not designed with current education offers in mind”, she said in an interview. “There is not a single private school offering all classes in Spanish”, she warned.

According to the Catalan Minister, the Spanish Government “is not hiding” its intention to introduce “the Basque model” in Catalonia. In the Basque Country, there are schools teaching only in Spanish, bilingual schools and schools teaching only in Basque. “Our model is different, we don’t separate pupils for language reasons”, she warned. “The final results at the end of compulsory education show pupils’ linguistic competence” in both Spanish and Catalan, she added.

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The Salamanca Documents

After 75 years, Catalonia still awaits the return of the documents. Here three articles about this topic:

From Pillage to Reparation: The struggle for the Salamanca papers

It is a great pleasure to have been asked to talk to you today about the case of the so-called "Salamanca Papers". I greatly appreciate Professor Preston's invitation. I think that there are a couple of things I should say to introduce myself. I have only ever spoken in public in England once before. That was thirty-one years ago, in 1975, at a meeting held in Oxford in protest over the last death sentences decreed by the Franco regime. I hate to think what I must have said. I was born and brought up in England, my father having been a London-born ex-RAF pilot and my mother -still alive and kicking- the eldest daughter of a Catalan surgeon, Josep Trueta. Like several hundred thousand fellow Catalans and Republicans, he went into exile in February 1939, at the end of the Spanish Civil War. His exile in England was prompted not  read more..

A tale of two archives

As Viewpoint's Special Correspondent in Catalonia, I am moved to get into print a version of a talk I gave a few months ago to my old Department, the School of Modern Languages. The topic is one that I have been involved with a little over the past year or so, and it has given me reason to recall with nostalgia the exemplary manner in which, over the past twenty years, the University has become a renowned repository of historical archives, thanks, in particular, to the initiative of former Vice-Chancellor John Roberts in obtaining the deposit of the Wellington Papers in the early 80s and to the vision, commitment and expertise of former Librarian Bernard Naylor and (still going strong) Archivist Christopher Woolgar. The Hartley Library is now a major centre for the study of 19th- and 20th-century British history and Anglo-Jewish relations.  Contrast the way in which the owners of family and institutional papers have entrusted them to the expert care of the Hartley Library read more..

Salamanca Documents Not Yet Returned

After years of non-compliance, the Spanish Minister of Culture promised that the Spanish State would return to Catalonia, by 30th June 2012, all the documents that were looted by Spain during the war and stored at the Spanish Civil War Archive in Salamanca. Months after this deadline, the documents that belong to individuals and to private organizations and were meant to be sent to the Catalan government never made it back. It seems history will repeat itself as with the previous shipment promised by the Spanish Minister of Culture under Spanish president Zapatero, when everything was ready for the return of the documents and the Spanish administration stopped the shipment.

Yet hundreds of boxes full of documents are pending return. For this reason, when on the 26th of April the Spanish Minister of Culture told his Catalan peer that the documents, filed as “war booty” in the General Spanish Civil War Archive in Salamanca, would be returned before the 30th of June, we breathed a sigh of relief.

After facing year after year of non-compliance and delays, Mr. Wert's words were welcome. In this context, it must be taken into account that the last Minister of Culture read more..

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496 Spanish State Vessel Incursions into BGTW Last Year

In a recent UK Commons debate on Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Labour MP for Heywood and Middleton Jim Dobbin questioned Europe Minister David Lidington on the number of incursions by Spanish state vessels in BGTW between December 2013 and now. Minister Lidington stated that there had been a total of 496 incursions throughout 2013, with 9 being carried out in December. This year there has been 77 unlawful incursions as of 28^th February. Guardia Civil carried out 53 of these, with two being carried out by the Spanish Navy.

Minister Lidington went on to say that the Government continues to make diplomatic protests to the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding these incursions. He added, ‘unlawful incursions do not weaken or undermine the legal basis for British sovereignty over Gibraltar territorial waters.’

Source

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Spanish nationalism is ready to initiate mechanisms of violence in the Catalan society

Javier Nart, the candidate of a Spanish nationalist party in Catalonia, confirms:

"We are heading straight into a social breakdown; there will be occasional acts of violence." The strategy against the democracy of the right of self-determination is to incite violence in Catalonia. 

Javier Nart, lawyer, TV pundit and Catalan by choice, promotes hatred towards Catalonia and incites the use of violence in the Catalan society.

With statements published at the hahstag #ViaUlster, Nart is attempting to become relevant in the Spanish political arena. He’s making a living and building his political career at the expense of degrading Catalonia through the media by stirring up the hate between the Spanish and the Catalans.

In an interview published at one of the most subsidized Spanish media , Nart clearly states he is against the joy of the Catalan Way and the right of self-determination. The unionists, who don’t want to lose and are terrible losers, will act without any legitimacy inciting violence in the Catalan society.

The Spanish Nationalists want to take lies and hatred towards Catalans to the European political arena.

The interview does not hide Nart’s intentions. On the contrary, it reveals hatred towards the right of self-determination. The aim of this former militant of the Spanish socialist party PSOE, full of hate towards the people who welcomed him, is to wage war against democracy.

Some quotes:

"Europe was created precisely against nationalism. It was created with the clarity that there would be no more nationalism –and separatism even less.”

"Catalan nationalism is acting as a sociological Francoism."

"It's very curious that sort of schizophrenic knowledge based on talking about the bombing of Barcelona, but not why they were bombed. They were bombed for the same reasons I would defend, which are not the privileges of Mr. Casanovas. "

“There will be neither shots nor casualties, but there will be social tension. There will be occasional acts of violence. Thank god, no party supports violence in Catalonia. However, exclusion essentialism has these consequences. One thing is that one does not promote it –as no separatist promotes it either– but when they state that unionists are bad Catalans for defending the theft, the looting, the cultural genocide, the oppression and occupation, how do you see me? "

“You will be scared shitless when we arrange an Ulster for you”

Some denied it and keep on denying it, but reality puts everyone in their place. The words of the Spanish nationalist candidate make it very clear. It’s about stirring fear, lies and insults in order to incite violence in Catalan society. But the Catalans Democrats refuse fall into their trap.

Read this article in Spanish, Italian

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The soon-to-be King Philip VI defines:"Spain is ONE(!!!) nation ONE(!!!) united social and political COMMUNITY deeply rooted in a ONE-THOUSAND-year old (!!!) history"

The soon-to-be (of course, non-elected) Spanish King Philip VI defines Spain in his first public speech after his father's abdication:

"Spain is ONE (!!!) nation… ONE (!!!) united social and political COMMUNITY deeply rooted in a ONE-THOUSAND-year old (!!!) history.”
Wishful thinking, I’d say.
And after stating that Spain is this ONE NATION he glibly adds:
“…and diverse”.

His vision of Spain clearly doesn’t sincerely contemplate the actual DIVERSITY of NATIONS within –currently ruled under ONE state and an oligarchy that still insists on denying their existence.

Does anyone still think the Spanish state and Establishment appreciate, serve and give the due respect to the several nations within the Iberian Peninsula they rule?
Does anyone still wonder why THE NATION OF CATALONIA is seeking to have its own state?

Francesc Xavier Canals

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People at Espanyol Stadium yell “Shakira is a whore” against Piqué

There was a lot of tension during the latest Barça-Espanyol derby, both on the field and on the stands. Among the chants intoned by some of the fans of Aguirre’s team, one could hear “Death to Trias” and “Shakira is a whore,” whenever FC Barcelona’s Gerard Piqué touched the ball.

French

German

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