The Government of Mazón will change the law to make the exemption of Valencian in the classrooms effective

The Ministry of Education was one of the priority objectives of Vox when it sealed its pact with the PP to enter the Valencian Government. However, the new president of the Generalitat, Carlos Mazón, was clear that this department should remain in the hands of the popular, taking into account that the education sector is one of the most mobilized and willing to go out into the streets.. Hence, he has entrusted his management to one of his trusted men with a past in the Ministry, the economist José Antonio Rovira. His “priority” is to change the current model of educational multilingualism.

This was confirmed yesterday by himself at the gates of the Palau de la Generalitat, where he went to meet with Mazón. As he is from Alicante, Rovira knows perfectly well the reality of a province whose Spanish-speaking regions rose up in arms against the norm designed by the government of Ximo Puig and, in particular, the Ministry of Education that controlled Compromís. The focus, therefore, will be on these students to enforce their right to exemption from Valencian.

“We will have to sit down and talk, but we have come to change things,” said Rovira. And one of them, according to the sources consulted, has precisely to do with the inconsistency that the left-wing multilingual model introduced for the PP: that students who could request an exemption to not take the Valencian subject would at the same time have to teach other non-linguistic subjects in this language.

In Rovira's own words, “it doesn't make sense”. This happens because the current regulations set a minimum of 25% of teaching hours for both Spanish and Valencian. However, the 1983 Law on the Use and Teaching of Valencian contemplates that students from regions recognized as Spanish-speaking can request the exemption of Valencian, in addition to students with temporary residence in the Valencian Community.

Therefore, the approach of the new Minister of Education is that these exempt students can enroll in Spanish in practice. In fact, one of the highlights of the agreement between PP and Vox is the one that has to do with “freedom of education”, therefore expressly including the “free choice of the language of instruction between the two official ones at all educational stages”. It must be remembered that the left-wing tripartite model did not like the supporters of 100% immersion in Valencian either, precisely because a minimum of Spanish and English was shielded.

The new Council

The one from Rovira is just one of the trusted men that Mazón has placed in the new Consell, which from the outset will be equal. The president of the Generalitat announced yesterday to the rest of the members, with a personal commitment that reveals not only the weight that the province of Alicante will once again have, but also his intention to maintain balance and counteract Vox. The strong man of the minority partner will be the first vice president and Minister of Culture and Sports, the bullfighter Vicente Barrera. Together with him, however, will be Susana Camarero as second vice president and counselor for Social Services and Equality.

Ruth Merino will be the other counterweight to Vox. The spokesperson for the coalition government will paradoxically be the woman who took the reins of Ciudadanos after the departure of Toni Cantó, and who ended up signing Mazón as part of his operation to unite the center-right vote. With a moderate and liberal profile, he will direct the Ministry of Finance, Economy and Public Administration.

The Vox quota is completed by Elisa Núñez in Justice and José Luis Aguirre in Agriculture, two technical profiles. Health will be for Marciano Gómez and Environment for Salomé Pradas, while Nuria Montes, coming directly from the hotel management, will assume an economic macro area with Tourism.