Catalan Mayors Will Take the Use of Catalan to the French Council of State and the European Courts

Catalan mayors, with the support of Òmnium, have decided to challenge the ruling of the Toulouse Court of Appeal, which reaffirms that French must be the priority language in municipal council meetings in Northern Catalonia. Today, they agreed to take the case to the French Council of State, an essential step before heading to Europe.

The mayor of Les Banys, Marie Costa, and the mayor of Elna, Nicolas Garcia, emphasized that the ruling “is not a victory, but neither is it a defeat.” They explained that as judicial decisions progress, more legal articles previously cited to marginalize the use of Catalan are being ruled out. Garcia acknowledged that “there might not be much hope with the Council of State, but it allows us to take the case to Europe, which protects the linguistic rights of all citizens.” He added, “This is how we can compel the French state to recognize our existence.”

Currently, the judicial arguments rest exclusively on Article 2 of the French Constitution, which states that “the language of the Republic is French.” Although Article 75-1 recognizes that minority languages “belong to the heritage of France,” the use of French is mandatory for public legal entities. This means Catalan can be used in council meetings, but only as a translated language and after French, without carrying any administrative or legal weight.

This nuance added by the Toulouse Court to the initial ruling of the Montpellier Court creates “a breach,” according to lawyer Mateu Pons, which they intend to leverage to take the case to the Strasbourg Court. The next step is to appeal the ruling of the Toulouse Court of Appeal to the French Council of State, the highest judicial body in France, and the final hurdle before reaching the European Court of Human Rights. Pons explained that they have two months to file the appeal, with the Council of State expected to deliver a decision in about two years. Following this, they would proceed to Strasbourg, marking the first case concerning linguistic rights where the French state not only marginalizes such rights but outright refuses to recognize them.

Pons also noted another advancement: the mayors’ right to intervene and defend their individual rights as elected officials to use Catalan has been acknowledged. This is significant because cases before the European Court can be brought in defense of individual rights, not institutional ones, representing another breach in the case.

“The Toulouse Court has condemned Catalan to be a subordinate, second-class language,” stated Xavier Antich, president of Òmnium. However, he added that through this process, they have managed to secure a ruling that “recognizes Catalan can be used in council meetings and that it cannot be prohibited.” “We are raising the battle for Catalan to another level. We are moving beyond regional and departmental administrative courts. Now, the mayors and Òmnium are directly confronting the French state,” Antich affirmed.

The ruling

The Court of Appeal of Toulouse today upheld the ban on the use of Catalan in municipal council meetings in the towns of Banys i Palaldà (Vallespir), Elna (Roussillon), Portvendres (Roussillon), Sant Andreu de Sureda (Roussillon), and Tarerac (Conflent). The municipalities had filed an appeal following last year’s decision by the Administrative Court of Montpellier, but the appeal has been dismissed. However, the court has left open the possibility of translating speeches from French into Catalan.

The court confirmed what had already been stated during the appeal hearing on November 28 and what the Montpellier court had ruled in May of last year: French must be the primary language in council meetings in Northern Catalonia, as required by the French Constitution. The ruling rejected the appeal by the municipality of Elna and upheld the annulment of the regulation allowing the use of Catalan in its council meetings. This regulation was later adopted by four other municipalities. The regulation stipulated that council members could speak in Catalan, provided their speeches were subsequently translated into French.

The court emphasized that under Article 1 of the law of August 4, 1994, French is “a fundamental element of the personality and heritage of France, and is the language of the Republic pursuant to the Constitution.” It further cited Article 21 of the same law on the protection and promotion of minority languages, which states that the provisions of the law “do not prevent the use of regional languages in public and private actions.” However, the ruling concluded that these provisions “neither prohibit nor authorize” council members to speak in a regional language during oral interventions.

The court also referred to Article 2 of the French Constitution, which declares that “the language of the Republic is French.” While Article 75-1 recognizes that regional languages “are part of the heritage of France,” the ruling underscored that “the use of French is mandatory for public legal entities.” Administrative documents must therefore be written in French. The court argued that although Article 75-1 was introduced to “underscore France’s attachment to regional languages,” it did not establish any rights or freedoms enforceable by individuals or local authorities, nor did it intend to diminish the scope of Article 2. Based on this reasoning, the court concluded that the modification of the regulation violated Article 2 of the Constitution, even if it required Catalan interventions to be accompanied by a French translation.

However, the court acknowledged that the provisions of Article 2 do not preclude council deliberations and speeches, once expressed in French, from being translated into Catalan.

A Long Judicial Battle

The decision of the Court of Appeal of Toulouse comes after a long legal process dating back to April 2022. The municipality of Elna approved a regulation change to allow speeches in council meetings to be delivered in Catalan, becoming the first municipality to adopt such a measure. The regulation required that these interventions be translated into French. The municipalities of Banys i Palaldà, Portvendres, Tarerac, and Sant Andreu de Sureda later followed suit. Opposition council members in Elna who were against the change reported it to the then Prefect of the Pyrénées-Orientales, Rodrigue Furcy, who subsequently referred the matter to the court after unsuccessfully urging the municipalities to reverse their decision.

Nearly a year later, in March 2023, the Administrative Court of Montpellier rejected Elna’s request to refer the issue of using Catalan in council meetings to the Constitutional Council. The hearing against the five municipalities took place on April 18 of last year. During the hearing, the public rapporteur of the Montpellier Administrative Court recommended annulling the regulation changes that allowed Catalan to be spoken in council meetings. The magistrate argued that “the language of the Republic” is French and that translating debates placed French in a subordinate position.

The court’s ruling, issued on May 9, annulled the regulation changes of the five Northern Catalan municipalities that had permitted speaking in Catalan during council meetings, provided the speeches were translated into French. The court justified its decision by stating that French is the language of the state, as established by the French Constitution, and could not be relegated to a mere language of translation. The affected municipalities described the ruling as a “slap in the face” for the Catalan language and announced their intention to appeal to the Court of Appeal of Toulouse, which has now delivered its verdict.