The Platform per la Llengua and a dozen entities presented last December the annual report that includes cases of alleged linguistic discrimination in the Valencian Community, which on this occasion includes different complaints to the Corps and Forces … and state security, as Civil Guard and the National Police.
The annual report on “violations of linguistic rights” for 2025 presented by the Escola Valenciana and the self-proclaimed “Catalan NGO” reports 153 cases “discrimination” suffered by Valencians, a problem which, according to them, has been aggravated in schools by the law on educational freedom.
However, the work of the police and the Civil Guard is also of particular importance. According to one of the complaints contained in the aforementioned document, presented to the Ombudsman of Greuges – the equivalent of the Valencian Ombudsman – a member of the Benemérita allegedly forced a driver to speak in Spanish and not in Valencian.
“A civil guard approached him at the exit of a parking lot, where he was waiting, to tell him that he was blocking the way,” reports the complaint from the armed agent of the institute. “The driver repeated several times in Valencian that the cars were leaving but the agent told him that he didn’t understand it.” Finally, he emphasizes that he encouraged him to change his language: “I am the authority and you must speak to me in Spanish“.
Another case described in the report is that experienced during a routine check in the town of Vinaròs in Castellón, where a driver explains having argued with an agent after exchanging sentences in Spanish and Catalan while asking for his papers.
“While he is taking my papers, he asks me, can he speak Spanish?, and I tell him, with a confident but carefree air: no.” He continues: “The agent accepted my ‘no’ with slight tension and said to me, without losing good manners: ‘Very good, now you are going to get out of the car and open the back door for me.'” After following the instructions of the Civil Guards, they checked the interior of the vehicle and after “several routine questions”, they told him that he could leave.
“The mother tongue is Catalan”
However, he wanted to ask them one last question about the intersection of opinions on the use of the language: “At this moment, I would like to take this opportunity to tell you that not only do I not have the obligation to speak to you in Spanish, since we are in the Valencian country and the language of the country is Catalan, but they, as civil servants, are obliged to understand it – at least – and even have to respond to me in my language.
“They ask me where it is stipulated that they must do this and they affirm that they are representatives of the Spanish State, whose official language is Spanish and it is the one that they must use throughout the country,” object the representatives of the authority. “I tell them that The Constitution declares that Spanish is the official language of the statebut it also recognizes that there are regions with their own languages that must be protected and respected”, replies the Catalan. “I also explain to them that the Statute of Autonomy of the Valencian Country also establishes the right to be understood in my language, which is Catalan”, he emphasizes.
Finally, he tried to ask them for their ID number: “I ask this last question in Spanish and the agent says, ‘Ah!’ Now, do you understand me?”, to which he replied: “I understand all the time, the one who doesn’t understand me is you. At that point he waves me off and I go home.
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