Pablo Iglesias. Photo: EFE/Paco Campos
Pablo Iglesias. Photo: EFE/Paco Campos

PODEMOS is calling for schoolchildren all over Spain to be taught Basque, Catalan and Gallego.

Under the party’s general election manifesto, children from Malaga could, for example, swap places with children from Bilbao to learn Basque for a term.

Pablo Iglesias’ radical left-wing party has pledged to set up specific schools and student exchanges to ensure children can study the different regional languages.

“Spain is a multinational country with different languages , and we must use that because it is enriching for children,” said a Podemos spokesman.

The party’s manifesto says all Spain’s languages are a ‘cultural and linguistic heritage of the state’, not just the official language, Castellano.

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6 COMMENTS

  1. I am curious to see if this strange recommendation will help Podemos in the tomorrow elections.
    As a German native speaker I am also fluent with Bavarian and Colonian and I do understand Saxonian, Alemanian and Frisian – but I never enjoyed a formal education on those German dialects.
    I myself would be glad if I could better speak Castellano. So why Basque, Catalan or Gallego while living in Andalucia?
    OK, I am not a child, but I think Spanish children could benefit more from learning English, German, French – or even Mandarin?

  2. Excellent idea. It’s the same in most countries the parasites in the capitals impose their language, their ideas on the rest of the country. Paris and London are the same. French was not the general language in France until 1850 when French was arbitrarily imposed on the Auvergne, Britanna, Pay Basque and the Languedoc.

    My only quibble with Galicia is that as they are of Gaelic blood, they should be speaking Gaelic and not the Portugeuse dialect which is Latin based.

    In the infamous Highland Pacification Campaign of 1746, any man found to speak Gaelic was hanged, which was easy for the Aryan killers as the ordinary highlander only spoke Gaelic, that is the only reason that few today speak Gaelic.

    Well done Pablo – a real democrat.

  3. In my opinión the existence of different languages is bad for the Human Kind ; we must remember the biblical history of the Tower of Babil .

    The application of the proposition of Iglesias would bring the result of a sinking in the educative levels of the young people. Levels that nowadays are terribly low, our young people would speak two European languages different to the Spanish, and… one or more regional languages.

    So remarkable linguistic erudition would require that the rest of the academic skills would be inferior than the existing ein the present times

    We must be present that the EU is an intent for to compete with USA, Japan and China. Countries with only one language employed by most of their population.

    The regional languages are absolutely justified in a regional economy. In a continental economy -from Cadiz to Siberia and from Greenland to Cape City – we need a lingua franca, that, I think , must be an artificial language ; Esperanto, Ido or similar.

    In my opinion will be necessary that the only official language used in all EU must be one artificial language. And so nobody would be forced to forgot his regional languages , a cultural richness of the Human Kind, and these languages would conserve better. This measure would aid to stop the increasing decadence which is suffering the EU.

  4. Anselmo, a official common language would be an advantage for the EU. But I think it must not be a artificial language. And this official EU language should not be delivered by one of the big five: UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. It has to be a language which forces the vast majority of EU citizens to exert themselves learning the new language.
    What about Greek? This language is new to 98% of the EU population. For a decade you will need two million Greek language teachers therof 98% have to be spend by people from Greece. This will be a wonderful economic recovery program for Greece and will help Greece to get rid of all their debts. As had already been demonstrated by the Greek parliament, the Greek language is a nice asset to improve the vitality of political debates in the EU.
    Too exhausting? May be. But if we do not introduce a common language for the EU, then our grandchildren may be forced to learn Mandarin, which will be more exhausting!

  5. Anselmo,
    your argument is the Fascist argument, every time you comment it is overtly Fascist. Rule from the centre, destroy the regional culture.

    This why the Campaign by the English and German Aryans in 1746 was used a textbook classic in terror tactics in the SS training colleges of Nazi Austria and Germany.

    This is why Franco banned Euskadi, Gallego and Catalan. if you want to destroy a culture, destroy the language, this was a ruthless campaign carried out by the Spain and Portugal
    In Central and South America.

    Wolfgang how come you know nothing about Esperanto – this language has been around for over 90 years and is far from dead. The fact that the EU has carefully avoided mentioning it shows the real intention of this corrupt organisation.

    It should have been a founding principle of the formation of the EU. Then every EU citizen would have been compelled to learn 3 languages, their national, regional and Esperanto.

    This would have made it easy for Europeans to work and holiday in other European countries. There would have been no need for parasitical interpreters, all contracts would have had to be written in the national language and Esperanto. How may ordinary people would’nt have been conned.

    There is no such plan by the Eurocrats to ever implement this very nec. cornerstone since it only benefits the ordinary European and that quite patently is not the reason for the EU to exist. However they will further benefit big business by adopting TTIP – the last brick in the wall of Americanising Europe and ceding complete control to Washington or rather America’s elite who actually rule the States. 1984 was a long time ago and so few noticed – remember war is peace and peace is war.

  6. Stuart, I agree with your statement about TTIP but may I ask you not to call everybody a fashist who is not fully in line with your thoughts? Regarding Esperanto, this language in my opinion is too close to Castellano and therefor gives an advantage to all people with roman mothertangue. Furthermore Esperanto does not help Greece to get rid of their debt. The only business that makes money in Greece is tourism. There exists almost no industry and Greek agriculture is not competitive. Only with their Greek language they will have a unique selling. Remember that the ancient Greek language had been the overall language in the then known world long before Latin, French or English came into this position.

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