The RAE uncovers its wounds after “the most serious attack since there is memory” | Culture | EUROtoday

The Royal Spanish Academy (RAE), a tricentennial establishment in command of “cleaning, fixing and giving splendor” to the language, goes by probably the most turbulent moments in its current historical past. What started as a hidden disagreement concerning the course of linguistic coverage has led to an open disaster, with public reproaches, inside wounds and an underlying debate about who ought to decide the future of the frequent language of greater than 600 million audio system. This provides to the alternate of accusations between the establishment and the director of the Cervantes Institute, Luis García Montero, that occurred on the finish of final yr, a disagreement that has led to controversy over the designation of the headquarters that may host the subsequent Language Congress in 2028.

The spark that precipitated the final hearth was a tribune by Arturo Pérez-Reverte (educational since 2003 and probably the most learn Spanish writers) printed in The World on Sunday the eleventh, during which he launched a frontal assault in opposition to the RAE and its present director, Santiago Muñoz Machado (on the helm since 2018). The author accused the establishment of getting surrendered to media and political pressures, of working towards “lax and ambiguous” rules and of getting damaged the historic steadiness between philologists and literary creators.

In his textual content, Pérez-Reverte attacked what he calls the “anything goes Taliban” and denounced that the Academy limits itself to registering makes use of pushed by social networks or political correctness, as a substitute of defending it firmly and with clear guidelines. He cited as examples the shortage of forcefulness in debates akin to inclusive language, the accentuation of solo o script or using capital letters. “Today anything goes,” he wrote, “and any bold cathet can prevail, if he perseveres, over Cervantes, Galdós or García Márquez.”

The publication fell like a bomb throughout the establishment. Several lecturers consulted specific opinions that may be summarized in a phrase uttered by one among them: “It is the most serious attack since there is memory.” They level out that it’s not a lot due to the content material—opinionable—as due to the shape: a public criticism, with out prior discover, exterior company channels. The unrest was aggravated by the context: the platform appeared on the eve of the Zenda awards ceremony, promoted by Pérez-Reverte himself. Several lecturers had confirmed their attendance on the occasion and all of the sudden discovered themselves in the course of crossfire. Muñoz Machado didn’t attend.

The RAE’s response was contained, however agency. The establishment confused that it’s “a personal and respectable opinion” and introduced that it could “rigorously” analyze the criticism within the corresponding departments, inviting the author to defend his arguments in plenary session. Pérez-Reverte, for his half, thought-about the controversy closed: on the cocktail occasion after the Zenda Awards, he spoke with EL PAÍS, had a dialog concerning the commotion precipitated, however most popular to not dwell on his complaints: “Everything I wanted to say, I have said in the article.”

This Thursday there was a plenary session, like each Thursday. It got here, evidently, preceded by the controversy gathered in current days. Several lecturers consulted by this medium maintained that they didn’t keep in mind a plenary session that was preceded by a lot pressure. Arturo Pérez-Reverte attended the assembly. He introduced, in abstract, the identical complaints as in his article. The improvement of the plenary session was calm, however a number of audio system, as EL PAÍS has discovered, confirmed their “rejection” for a tutorial to specific himself as Pérez-Reverte did in a media outlet. Some reproached him for his “ignorance” of the day by day work of the Academy and several other valued the work of the present director very positively. Time choked the session and never everybody was in a position to take part, so the controversy will proceed subsequent week.

On the defensive

Not all, however throughout the RAE there are numerous who, after the publication of the article, today defended a imaginative and prescient totally different from that of the novelist. Several lecturers (preferring to not give their names) flatly reject the concept of ​​a frivolous Academy or one dominated by dogmatic philologists. And they do not forget that the establishment features as a “confederal regime”, in coordination with the American Academies (additionally the Philippines and Equatorial Guinea), and that no phrase is accepted flippantly: first it’s studied in delegated commissions of six or seven lecturers, then the pan-Hispanic sphere is consulted and solely in case of battle is it mentioned in a delegated plenary session. “There is no bias,” a number of lecturers insist. The RAE—they emphasize—has been structured for many years into three unofficial thirds: literary creators, philologists and a heterogeneous group that features jurists, docs or scientists. “Nothing has changed,” they are saying. The RAE consists of 46 full lecturers, elected by an absolute majority of the voters of the plenary session. The final individual elected is Cristina Sánchez López (elected final March), and the final member to enter after giving her speech, Javier Cercas. Symptom of blockage within the establishment or not, the reality is that final May Luis Alberto de Cuenca and Luis Fernández-Galiano competed for the chair ohowever neither of the 2 candidates obtained the required votes, so the place remained vacant (the seat can be free L).

Some inside voices have been harsher with Pérez-Reverte today. A member of the Academy accuses him of being provocative in his article and of providing an “obsolete” imaginative and prescient of the Academy and linguistic change. “There is no war here between writers and philologists,” others emphasize. “What there is are personal philias and phobias.” The reality is that we must return to 1968, when Dámaso Alonso was elected, to achieve an RAE directed by a author. The following administrators of the establishment (Fernando Lázaro Carreter, 1991; Víctor García de la Concha, 1998; José Manuel Blecua, 2010; Darío Villanueva, 2014) had been philologists. Muñoz Machado, who got here to the administration in 2018 and who helped with essential financing after a discount in state funds that significantly affected the establishment (particularly in the course of the Government of Mariano Rajoy), is a jurist.

The Cervantes entrance

The turbulence that the RAE is experiencing shouldn’t be restricted to the conflict with Pérez-Reverte. For months, the group has maintained an open battle with the Cervantes Institute, headed by the professor and poet Luis García Montero. In October 2025, García Montero publicly criticized the truth that the Academy is directed by a professor of Administrative Law and never by a philologist, suggesting a technocratic drift and a disconnection with the linguistic essence of the establishment. The response of the RAE was speedy: the plenary session accepted a declaration of “absolute rejection” of the poet’s phrases. Many interpreted his statements as a political assault – García Montero was a candidate for Izquierda Unida in Madrid in 2018 – somewhat than as a technical criticism. Precisely, Pérez-reverte was one among them.

Beyond the non-public, the battle moved to the worldwide degree in the course of the tenth International Congress of the Spanish Language (CILE), held in Arequipa from October 14 to 17, the place the friction between each establishments turned seen. Since then, Cervantes has reproached the RAE for the “one-way” selection of Panama because the venue (in 2028) of the subsequent congress. The Institute wields a doc, to which EL PAÍS has had entry, signed by earlier heads of the RAE (then the director was José Manuel Blecua) and that regulates a joint process for the election of the CILE headquarters. At the Academy they reply: “The first thing of all is for a country to make a proposal to host the CILE. And so far the only formal proposal is that of Panama.” Despite all the things, García Montero has softened his speech and has assured that he has not damaged “any bridge” with the RAE.

In the midst of the storm, Muñoz Machado has acquired the help of academies on the opposite aspect of the Atlantic and establishments such because the Royal Academy of Moral and Political Sciences, which has described exterior criticism as “unjustified and out of place.” Several lecturers deny any authorities interference, one thing that has additionally been instructed in current months: “We know that the Government does not attack the Academy; on the contrary, we have always noticed its support.”

“Although it may not seem like it, peace normally reigns here,” a number of members level out. Still, the injuries are evident. “There are many people hurt,” admit others, who lament the reputational harm and the sensation of tearing in a home used to resolving its disputes behind closed doorways. All this additionally comes at a key second: in December the subsequent director of the RAE will likely be elected. Muñoz Machado himself might run, however for a second re-election two-thirds of the votes are required, one thing very troublesome to realize. The establishment that aspires to repair the language as we speak faces a extra pressing and delicate activity: recomposing its personal story and deciding what steadiness it needs to take care of between custom, use and authority on this twenty first century. As of as we speak, no candidate has but formally introduced himself to steer the Academy in its subsequent stage.