Justice knocks down the appeal of the PP against the linguistic requirement in the City Council of Dénia
The contentious-administrative Court No. 4 of Alicante has rejected the appeal, presented by the councilors of the municipal group of the Popular Party, María Mut and Jose Antonio Cristóbal, against the approval of the linguistic requirement for the selective processes that are held at the Dénia City Council from January 1, 2020 (plenary agreement of August 29, 2019).
As the Socialists explain in a statement, "once again, the Popular Party has tried to prosecute issues that do not pose any problem for citizens. Furthermore, issues are perfectly and clearly legislated by supra-municipal institutions."
The PSPV regrets the statements made in his day by the national deputy of the PP, César Sánchez, in which he accused the socialists of having turned Dénia into "a satellite of Catalonia" due to the implementation of the linguistic requirement. "This is one more sample of which the PP of Dénia passes of braking in a subject that is more than normalized in our society, they explain.
PSPV: "We are very satisfied by the forcefulness of the judicial verdict"
The implementation of the linguistic requirement to the City Council of Dénia was a pending matter that had to be unraveled to comply with the current legislation in two aspects: on the one hand, as the same sentence cites, the Law of use and teaching of Valencian and the Law of the public function; on the other, the obligation of the administrations to guarantee citizens access, in this case to their town hall, in any of the two official languages in the Valencian Community, in an area of predominantly Valencian language.
The Socialists have been satisfied by "the forcefulness of the judicial verdict" and add, "It is a sentence that shows a clear and necessary evolution and respect in the treatment of our language and the banishment of prejudices and conflicts around Valencian, which are already very outdated. "
The arguments presented in the Judgment
The judge in charge of evaluating the case and issuing a judgment endorses the arguments that Defendant No. 1 used to dismiss the other judicial appeal filed by a union, having presented this appeal before the TSJCV.
The judgment denies the accusations with which the defendants justify the appeal. Regarding the alleged lack of negotiation with the workers, once the chronology of meetings with the General Negotiation Table, with political and union representation, has been studied, "there is an action and a negotiating will between the attending parties."
Regarding the substantive issue, the legality of the plenary agreement and the introduction of the linguistic requirement in the selection processes, the judicial opinion refers to the pronouncement of the Superior Court of Justice in similar cases: Law 4/1983, of November 23 of 1983, on the use and teaching of Valencian, in articles 30.2 and 3, “it establishes that in the bases of calls for access to the exercise of positions, occupations and public functions, by the Generalitat Valenciana and local corporations, in the field of the respective competences, the knowledge of the Valencian will be valued ”.
It also cites article 29.4 of the Consolidated Text of the Valencian Public Service Law which specifies that “whoever passes the selective tests will accredit knowledge of Valencian by presenting the certificates, diplomas or degrees approved by the Generalitat or by carrying out of a specific exercise ”.
Therefore, the magistrate concludes, "the Administration can establish a certain level of knowledge of Valencian as a requirement for a certain workplace, so that only those who have the corresponding qualification can access."
Finally, the “proportionality” of the approved measure is addressed and the court highlights that “as stated in the administrative file, sheets 32 and 22, for more than 80% of the jobs (administrative assistants, local police officers. ...) the requirement is of the elementary level, the minimum ”.