A week after Air Berlin director Joachim Hunold’s controversial comments about the Catalan language and there have been a number of institutional and civic responses. Martí Estruch, for example, who represents the Generalitat de Catalunya in Germany, said that “to show contempt for the Catalan langauge is to show contempt for its culture and its speakers”. Meanwhile, the President of the Balearic Islands Government, Francesc Antich, is to meet with the Air Berlin director to explain the Government’s language policies.

As for the response from civil society, groups such as Obra Cultural Balear have expressed their indignation by organizing a mass mailing campaign demanding an apology. Websites e-criteri and Catalunya Acció, among others, have also set up mailing campaigns.

Hunold attacked the Catalan language in his editorial for Air Berlin’s in-flight magazine. He wrote that “these days Spanish is no longer an official language”, and that “there are towns on the island where children no longer speak Spanish”, and that Playa de Palma “no longer sounds like the language of a great world empire” when it is called by its Catalan name, Platja de Palma. Hunold was responding to a letter sent to the company by the Balearic Government’s department of language policy inviting Air Berlin to use “the official languages of the Balearic Islands”.

Further information:

• Avui: Air Berlin s'escuda en l'efecte dòmino per no utilitzar el català