Long a symbol of Catalan identity, Barcelona soccer club added its
voice Wednesday to a simmering political dispute between the region of
Catalonia and Spain's central government. Weeks after Spain's
education minister said he was drafting a proposal to make the
teaching of Castilian Spanish obligatory in schools throughout the
country, Barcelona defended the use of the Catalan language and how it
is being taught in the region.
"Our language, like our club, is an element of integration which
permits us to identify with our country (Catalonia)," the club said.
Catalonia uses a system called "immersion teaching" to propagate the
use of its language, and the club said it "energetically asserts its
right to use the Catalan language and the model of language immersion
that has been in force in Catalonia over the last 34 years."
In the current system, there are separate Spanish classes in
Catalonia's state schools, but they are not obligatory. Barcelona has
an important match Wednesday night at its Camp Nou stadium in the
city, where it hosts Portuguese team Benfica in a Champions League
match. Matches are often used as colorful occasions where Catalan
nationalist sentiments are vented.
The statement also comes at a politically sensitive time for Spain. A
financial crisis has left the country on the verge of requesting an
international bailout, and the government has been forced to pass
unpopular austerity measures. This has fueled long-simmering
separatist sentiments in Catalonia, where many believe the region can
thrive if it breaks away from Spain and becomes an independent nation
within the European Union.
That notion was put to the test in Catalonia's regional parliamentary
elections on Nov. 25 in which the central issue was whether to hold a
referendum on separating from Spain. Pro-referendum voters obtained a
majority of seats in the legislature. The proposed referendum has
caused tensions with the central government led by Prime Minister
Mariano Rajoy which maintains that Spain's regions cannot hold
individual referendums because that would be unconstitutional.
The dispute grew more heated when Rajoy's minister for education,
culture and sport, Jose Ignacio Wert, said he was drafting a proposal
that would change current education legislation to ensure that
Castilian was taught in schools throughout the country. On Monday,
Catalonia's regional education counselor, Irene Rigau, stormed out of
a meeting at Wert's ministry in Madrid saying his proposal was
unacceptable.
And on Wednesday, Barcelona team captain Carles Puyol used his Twitter
account to post hash tag keywords critical of Wert. Calls to Wert's
ministry on Wednesday afternoon did not immediately yield a comment.
The Barcelona soccer team, whose motto is "more than a club," is seen
as a bastion of Catalan identity dating back to Spain's 1936-39 civil
war and the subsequent military dictatorship of Gen. Francisco Franco.
A former club president, Josep Sunyol, was executed in 1936 by
Franco's forces, and during the dictatorship, the use of Catalan was
forbidden and many books in the language were burned.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/barcelona-soccer-club-defends-catalan-17886069#.UL_dFYPK4Zg
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