THE Spanish officials in Madrid who refuse to contemplate Catalan self-determination had reason to be smug a few weeks ago. Catalonia's government called a snap regional election, which the ruling party hoped would deliver momentum for a referendum on independence. The party lost, and the independence movement was divided and in mild disarray. Spain 1, Catalonia 0 in the match so far.

But last week, Spain's education minister booted the ball into his own goal. Catalonia's education focuses on immersion in Catalan. Core subjects are taught in that language, while Spanish is taught several hours a week as a foreign language. José Ignacio Wert, as the Financial Times reports, announced plans to require regions either to offer enough core courses in Spanish to satisfy parents who want them, or to pay for private tuition for those families. Catalonia's nationalists are now united in fury.

As noted in our last post on this, efforts to marginalise minority languages often make speaking them a point of pride. As the FT notes, "The timing of Madrid’s move could not be better for Mr [Artur] Mas [Catalonia's president,] who is seeking to form a coalition government committed to a referendum on independence, which the central government says would be unconstitutional." The more radical of the pro-independence parties was equally quick to sieze on the proof "that we must separate from Spain".

It's disheartening to see both sides use schoolchildren to score their political points; what kids in a place like Catalonia need to be taught, almost more than anything, is a respect for pluralism and multilingualism. Many Catalans proudly consider themselves Catalan, Spanish and European all at the same time. Catalans need Spanish (and English and German). But Mr Wert's announcement was badly timed; he must have known that it would appear as a provocation as Catalonia's parties jockey to form a government.

Governments committed to batting down annoying regional language nationalists, take note.