Albiol Says PP Would Keep Compulsory Catalan Immersion in Schools
PP's Barcelona candidate Albiol said on Nov. 12 the party would keep compulsory Catalan immersion in schools, despite its manifesto pledge on Spanish teaching.
Albiol, the Partido Popular (PP, the Popular Party) candidate for Barcelona in the Nov. 29 election, said on Nov. 12 that a PP government under Alberto Núñez Feijóo would not end compulsory Catalan-language immersion in Catalan classrooms. The Spanish daily ABC reported the remarks, which differ from what the party’s own election manifesto promises on language in schools.
ABC noted that this position runs against court rulings on the matter, and that it comes only days after a separate public disagreement inside the party over translation earpieces in the Congress of Deputies.
What Albiol said at the Barcelona debate
Albiol spoke during a debate of the Barcelona candidates for the Nov. 29 election, organized by the Prisa media group for the newspaper El País and the radio network SER Catalunya. He was asked directly whether the manifesto proposal on immersion would end the model as it works today. He answered no. In his words, language in schools is a competence of the Generalitat (the Catalan government), so it is not something the Spanish state can regulate in detail.
In a post published by SER Catalunya, Albiol also said he is worried about the decline of Catalan on the street. He argued that everyone should be able to speak naturally in the language they choose, and that Spanish needs reinforcing in some territories and Catalan in others.
What the PP manifesto says
Point 96 of the PP manifesto describes Spanish as the common language of Spaniards, who have a constitutional duty to know it and a right to use it. It calls the languages of each autonomous community a cultural heritage that the party would protect alongside the common official language. It also promises to guarantee the constitutional right to receive education in Spanish at every stage of schooling across the country, while respecting the co-official languages and complying with court rulings.
ABC reports that the same manifesto promises a bilingual system with Spanish and Catalan as the languages of instruction. According to the newspaper, Albiol does not appear to agree with this part of the document.
A pattern of distance from the party line
ABC says this is not the first time Albiol has departed from PP positions on language rights. Some months ago, the city council of Badalona, where he governs with an absolute majority, backed the Pacto Nacional por la Lengua (National Pact for the Language). The pact was promoted by the PSC, ERC and Òmnium, and it was rejected by the PP of Catalonia led by Alejandro Fernández. ABC says Fernández’s party promotes measures that would push Spanish aside in institutions and private activity, under the banner of promoting Catalan.
The newspaper also links the episode to the recent dispute over earpieces in the Congress of Deputies. Feijóo said he would not remove them, even though the PP has opposed them since 2023, called for their removal in its 2025 political paper and includes their withdrawal in its manifesto for this election. That disagreement involved Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo, according to ABC.
What this means for the campaign
For parents and teachers in Catalonia, the practical rules of the classroom stay where they are today if Albiol’s reading holds: he places the matter with the Generalitat, not with Madrid. The manifesto text and the candidate’s statement, however, currently point in different directions, and ABC presents them as a split between Albiol and the national party.
The election is on Nov. 29.
Source: ABC
