The Reluctant Catalans

The Ramon Llull Institute is a body that was founded ten years ago. Its purpose is to promote the Catalan language and Catalan culture, the emphasis being on promotion internationally. The institute comprises different regional authorities - the Balearic Government, the governments of Catalonia and Andorra - as well as the General Council of the Pyrénées-Orientales, the town council of Alghero in Sardinia, various cities in the region of Valencia, the Vives network of Catalan universities and the Ramon Llull Foundation, a body which basically does the same as the Institute but which is based in Andorra; the Institute is headquartered in Palma and Barcelona.

The geographical spread of the Institute's representatives more or less corresponds with where Catalan or a Catalan dialect/variant are spoken. The Institute lives up to its billing of promoting the Catalan language and culture and it manages to co-opt some important partners. In September, an agreement was signed with FC Barcelona to promote Catalan culture. The Institute is promoting the teaching of Catalan studies at the LSE as from this academic year. It stages exhibitions, such as that dedicated to the artist Joan Miró in Yorkshire in October. During the World Travel Market in London it has been staging an exhibition by Balearic artists called Isleart.

The Institute, named after the ancient Mallorcan writer-theologian-astrologist and all-round man of mystery, has in its ten years faced some controversy; all of it political. Two years after it was founded during Francesc Antich's first PSOE socialist administration in the Balearics, the new Balearic Government of Jaume Matas's Partido Popular withdrew its support. The Balearics rejoined the Institute's consortium in 2008, after Antich had been re-elected as the president of the Balearics. The now Balearic Government of José Ramón Bauzá's PP is to withdraw from the consortium once again.

As can be seen from the list of the various bodies involved with the Institute, its existence owes much to the provision of public money. Ostensibly, it is public funding, or the lack of it, which is behind the Balearic Government's decision to withdraw. But there is more to it; a political more to it, just as there was when Matas was president.

Whether they have been critical in Bauzá's thinking, the elections in Catalonia are said to have influenced the attitude of the Balearic Government towards the Institute. I suspect that, regardless of whether Artur Mas wins on 25 November and so presses ahead towards independence, the decision would be the same. The PP has a distinctly unenthusiastic attitude towards the Institute.

On the face of it, you would think that the current government would be happy to have a body such as the Institute bringing the name of one of Mallorca's two most famous sons to the world's attention and doing so in a fashion that might help with promoting the much-hyped cultural tourism. The trouble is of course that this famous son has been hijacked by the rest of the Catalan world in order to promote the concept of Catalan as part of the Catalan Lands. The PP doesn't want to be a part of such a concept; it is totally anathema.

Much though Catalan culture and language are promoted and are spoken of with pride in Mallorca and the Balearics, the Mallorcan people - the majority possibly, or even probably - are reluctant Catalans. They wrap themselves in Catalan and Aragonese flags and favour the use of Catalan as the language of their children's education but they want little to do with Catalonia; they certainly don't want to be dominated politically by the region across the water.

The Mallorcans aren't the only ones. Though cities from the Valencia region have Institute representation, the regional government in Valencia has never supported the Institute. Valencia does not wish to be seen as some sort of Catalonia satellite, and there are many Valencians who would argue that their brand of Catalan is the real Catalan language and not that spoken in Barcelona.

The Institute, far from being a body that represents a unified Catalan culture, is one that shows divisions within Catalan-speaking regions. These are divisions of politics, dialects and jealousies. They are such that any notion of a Greater Catalonia will remain elusive and unattainable. There is no Catalan unity.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.