New Commissioner for the Social Use of Catalan to promote the language
The journalist and cultural activist Marta Salicrú will have the goal of broadening the use of Catalan in key spheres to ensure the language rights of Catalan speakers, give visibility to the language and combat its decline. Salicrú will work directly under the Mayor’s Office and her appointment fulfils the budget agreement with Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya.
In her presentation in the Sala de la Ciutat, Marta Salicrú’s examples of priority areas included shops, restaurants and young people, a collective where a decline in the use of Catalan has been noted.
To achieve these goals, the new commissioner noted that work is already under way on a new factory for creating digital content in Catalan. There are also plans to introduce the Catalan language as an area in the general subsidy call by the City Council and include the promotion of the social use of the language as a strategic cross-cutting goal in the Municipal Strategic Subsidy Plan.
The intention is also to link Catalan with a sense of belonging to the city, addressing non-Catalan speaking citizens and tourism alike. Finally, clear priorities will be established within the 68 actions planned to promote the use of Catalan in the city, with work carried out to implement them effectively.
In terms of the structure of municipal linguistic policy, the City Council will propose the creation of a Catalan Language Office to conceive, develop and assess action to foster the social use of Catalan in Barcelona, as well as the creation of the Barcelona Catalan Language Board to establish a dialogue between the city government and the sector for the social promotion and use of Catalan.
A budget of some 4 million euros will be earmarked for the municipal linguistic policy.
Leader in the production of digital content in Catalan
With a degree in Humanities and Journalism, Marta Salicrú has been the director of Radio Primavera Sound since 2019. She was the head journalist with the magazine Time Out Barcelona and a collaborator with the magazine Rockdelux and the radio station iCat FM. Salicrú is a leading figure in the production of quality digital content and a producer of podcasts in Catalan specialising in culture.
She is also the author of books such as Rosalía de la A a la Z (Libros Cúpula, 2024), the co-author of Putos himnes generacionals (2015) and joint director of productions at L’Auditori such as Amor Odi Radioshow (2022) and La Mort del Gènere (2023).
Letter to European cities about making Catalan official
At the same time, Jaume Collboni has sent a letter to 31 mayors in 14 European Union countries which have so far been reluctant to support the initiative to give Catalan official status in European institutions.
