Spanish in danger

Around twenty influential intellectuals have signed a manifesto demanding that the Spanish - or Castilian - language be protected. El Mundo comments: "The first thing that must be said is that it seems incredible that things have come this far. A country's official language, spoken by more than 400 million people around the world, is threatened at home and depends on civic initiatives for its survival. The [regional] nationalistic parties of the autonomous regions in which there are two languages have got us into this crazy situation. They try - sometimes using force - to win more speakers for the language they consider their own. The other culprit is the central government that sits back and does nothing."

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