Deputies from the Catalan political party Junts have formally questioned the Spanish government in Congress over the recent replacement of bilingual road signs on Catalonia’s motorways with versions written exclusively in Spanish.

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In a series of written questions, Junts representatives Isidre Gavín and Pilar Calvo claim that the Spanish Ministry of Transport is actively removing or altering existing signs to erase the Catalan language, an action they argue contravenes national traffic legislation.

A Breach of Bilingual Regulations

The party’s complaint centres on what it describes as a clear violation of Article 138 of Spain’s General Traffic Regulation. Junts states this law mandates that written information on road signs within autonomous communities with a co-official language must appear in both Spanish and the regional language.

Furthermore, the regulation stipulates that place names, such as towns and cities, must be shown in their official designation, which in many cases in Catalonia is the Catalan name. The Spanish version should only be added if it is deemed necessary for identification. This legal framework forms the basis of the deputies’ challenge to the ministry’s recent actions.

Among the specific examples cited by Deputy Pilar Calvo are:

  • The replacement of a sign for “Alacant” (the official Catalan name for Alicante) with one reading “Alicante”.
  • The addition of an “unnecessary” ‘Sur’ (South) after a sign for ‘Girona Sud’ (Girona South).
  • The removal of diacritical accents from Catalan place names, such as in “Montornès”.
  • On the AP-7 motorway near Montornès del Vallès, a sign for “Àrea de manteniment / Area de mantenimiento” (Maintenance Area) was replaced with the Spanish-only “Centro de Conservación” (Conservation Centre) instead of the Catalan “Centre de Conservació”.

The complaint also extends to the Val d’Aran region, where the deputies allege that nearly all signage is exclusively in Spanish, infringing on the rights of speakers of Aranese, a co-official language in Catalonia.

Language as a Political Flashpoint

The issue of road signs taps into the broader, often contentious debate surrounding language policy in Catalonia. The Generalitat de Catalunya‘s own Linguistic Policy Law of 1998 seeks to guarantee the use of Catalan in public life, a principle Junts argues is being undermined. The recent controversy over the Barcelona Marathon’s t-shirt slogan highlighted how sensitive issues of language representation remain in the region.

In his comments, Deputy Isidre Gavín stated that Catalan is “the proper language of Catalonia” and its normalisation in all public spheres “is a duty of the public authorities.”

Deputy Calvo has directly asked the Spanish government when it intends to “revoke the obligation to label in Spanish above Catalan” on infrastructure within autonomous communities with co-official languages. She also questioned whether the executive would respect the Generalitat’s exclusive authority over toponymy and whether the Department of Linguistic Policy had filed any formal complaints.

For Junts, the changes to road signs represent, in Calvo’s words, “a new attack on the integrity of the Catalan language.” This action comes at a time when the use of Catalan in official state institutions is expanding, following a historic agreement allowing its use in the Spanish Congress, a deal in which Junts was a key negotiator.

The Spanish government’s response to the formal questions will be closely watched, as it will signal its stance on the application of bilingual regulations and its approach to managing linguistic diversity within Spain’s infrastructure.