The latest annual report documenting breaches of linguistic rights in the Valencian Country includes one of the more jaw-dropping cases of discrimination against speakers of Catalan. A group of local police officers from Petrer (in the province of Alicante) walked in on a couple celebrating their wedding day and threatened to take the groom back to the barracks with them if he did not address the officers in Spanish. ElNacional.cat spoke with the linguistic NGO that compiled the report, Plataforma per la Llengua, to find out the details of the incident, which was just one of 126 complaints for linguistic discrimination presented to the Plataforma this year, the vast majority of them taking place in relation to government administration and its representatives - from the health services to, as in this case, the police.
Linguistic discrimination on their wedding day
According to the information from the Plataforma's Valencian Country branch, the incident took place after the wedding ceremony, when the wedding party and guests had retired to a house in Petrer that they had rented for the reception. The local police of the municipality showed up after a noise complaint that had reached them, and they asked for the person responsible. The bridegroom presented himself, addressing the officers in Valencian, but was met with contempt by the policemen, who threatened to take him into the barracks if he did not speak to them in Spanish while they issued him a fine for the noise. According to the NGO, the officers made comments along the lines of "we are in Spain, speak Spanish to me" to the victim. Finally, however, the just-married man decided to take the matter no further than a complaint with the Plataforma.
126 cases of discrimination in the Valencian Country in 2022
This year's report includes 126 complaints of linguistic discrimination in the Valencian Country alone. According to the data from Escola Valenciana, one of the organizations that collaborated with the preparation of the report, this year complaints have increased by 20% on the year before. In the opinion of those who compiled the report, one of the explanations is that "people are losing their fear of reporting when they suffer a linguistic violation". With respect to the cases outlined in the report, they regret that 75% of the complaints are in the government administration at all levels. Of these, half occur in the health sector. The worst locations in terms of generating complaints were the Alicante provincial council, the Alicante city council and the Valencia Country's department of health.
Valencian is regarded by language experts as the same language as Catalan, and close to the western dialects spoken in, for example, Lleida province. However, in the Valencian country it is usually referred to as valencià - Valencian.