Official announcement of the Occitan Provisional Government for the Federal and Democratic Republic of the Oc-language countries

Speech delivered by Mr. REVEST, Prime Minister of the Govern Provisòri Occitan per la Republica Federala e Democratica dels Païses d’Òc.

Toulouse, 24 March 2007

Mr. President,

Dear ministers,

Dòmnas e Sénhers, Ladies, and Gentlemen,

We are gathered here in Toulouse today, Saturday 24 March 2007, to proclaim the existence of an Occitan Provisional Government for the Federal and Democratic Occitan Republic.

For us it is a meaningful action to have the world recognize the existence of an Occitan nation.

It would have been easier to indefinitely expect from the Nation-States that rule us a few gestures of reparation for the past. It is easier to be ruled than to have home rule.

We had to overcome a low self-esteem, the spirit of submission that has prevailed for long centuries in Occitania to embark on such an adventure and clearly announce that Occitania may and must become self-governing within the European peoples’ space and the Euro regions that are emerging. There will be mixed reactions to this highly symbolic gesture

by those who devote a few thoughts to the future of Occitania.

We know that we’ll be faced with the hostility of government-subsidized people or bodies to whom the idea of a government is anathema. But, most of all we’ll be faced with the political forces that share power in Paris, Rome and Madrid since Occitania straddles three states. We know that we can only count on ourselves and the Occitan people. As the saying goes: “God helps those who help themselves”

For us, what it all boils down to is to give a voice again to the Occitan people because some would have loved us to remain speechless forever.

It also means restoring our people’s faith in democracy, giving their Occitan culture a new lease on life, giving them back points of reference, their land, their dignity, a new meaning to their life and that of future generations.

Occitania exists in people’s memory through its language, its culture.

We resist and shall resist the imperialistic bulldozer.

A people exists as long as solidarity areas are formed for all its subjects, language being one of those specific areas.

Consequently, denying the existence of the Occitan people, its language, its history, its culture falls within the realm of revisionism, an offence to be tried by the European court of justice and the peoples’ international Tribunal.

In the same way, we reject the word “communitarianism” whenever what is at stake is the defence of the Oc language, the French-speaking world or any other language in the world.

On that subject, we will be both careful and vigilant.

 Today nations are no longer defined as the product of a will-to-power. They exist because they have a culture which expresses itself through a specific indigenous language.

Just as there is Spain because there is a Spanish language, an Italian nation because there is an Italian language, a French nation because there is a French language, there is an Occitan nation because there is an Occitan language. It is still a living language even if it is under threat.

Some nations have their own state, others don’t. As for Occitania, it is the biggest stateless nation in Europe. It includes the southern third of the French state and encompasses the equivalent of a French department (county) in Italy, without forgetting the Valle de Aran in Spain. This territory situated between the Southern Alps and the Atlantic Ocean boasts a population of close to 14m. In the French state it is subdivided into 6 regions, Provence-Côte d’Azur, Languedoc Roussillon, Midi-Pyrénées, Aquitaine, Limousin, Auvergne and a region to be created: Drôme-Ardèche.

In the face of centralized states which exploit Occitania economically without any fallout, and an increasingly unbearable attempt at cultural genocide, we call on the Occitan population to recognize and support this provisional government.

            We call on heads of firms who are sick and tired of being heavily taxed for the benefit of central states.

We call on smallholders (shopkeepers, farmers, craftsmen and professional people) who are threatened by financial powerhouses. This government will be on their side to protect and encourage them in their productions and their work.

We call on all wage-earners threatened by unemployment and outsourcing.

We call on all local government officials who would also like to live close to home. An Occitan federal power will give them new scope and promotion prospects.

These forces make up a sociological majority whose members may and should come down in favour of our government.

There is an intellectual minority that could support us. It is made up of all the people who are attached to the Occitan dialects and who are aware that only the power of a state can restore the dignity of their language, their history and their culture in general. They are a tiny minority but as intellectuals their influence may be important and decisive.

           .

Maybe this government will be considered as the enemy of France by the servants of the centralized state.           

Not so long ago France was the world’s second-ranking colonial power in the world after Britain.

All the peoples who have a few bad memories of the colonial period will probably sympathize with our Occitan struggle for freedom.

Closer to us, European states will consider the emancipation of Occitania advocated by this government as a decisive step towards the end of a French imperialism responsible for so many useless wars in Europe.

           The renaissance of nations in Eastern Europe, which is based on a linguistic conception of the nation, in principle makes them supportive of a free Occitania and a Europe which would be fairer and more egalitarian for its nations.

           At our doors, Basques, Corsicans and Catalans can only see this Occitan Provisional Government as an encouragement in their national struggle.

It will be so for the other ethnic minorities of the French state (Alsatians, Flemish people or Bretons) and for the overseas territories peoples.

            So a sort of international league may appear to bring back France to what it should never have ceased to be: a nation like the others without its imperialistic leanings.

            If we give credit to the phrase: « a people who oppresses another is not a free people » it is thinkable that the French proper could also revolt against an increasingly parasitic Parisian bureaucracy.

One day, they could find of interest to limit it transforming northern France into a federal country.

This provisional government has a not insignificant potential support in Occitania as well as outside Occitania. Then our task will be to move from the provisional to the real.

How should we go about it?

             We benefit from a more or less democratic system banning all forms of violence.

It is up to us to take advantage of it. We will intervene at each layer of power (administrative districts, syndicates, departments, regions, central state, European Parliament)

            At the same time, these cascading powers are evolving. On the one hand, syndicates and regions on the other hand will be granted more powers at the expense of departments and the central power. With a series of devolution of powers, in the foreseeable future our major cities and regions making up Occitania will become sorts of ministates on the German or Catalan pattern

            Part of our government work will be to federate both urban self-governments and regional self-governments.

            So, gradually, thanks to its achievements, our government will be able to gain credibility and strength because it will be recognized domestically as well as abroad.

            I wish to pay tribute to the courage of those who will follow me in this wonderful adventure in the service of the Occitan people and beyond that of all the peoples of the world who crave for freedom.

Long live the Occitan Federal and Democratic Republic!

           Viva la Republica Federala e Democratica Occitana. Occitània viva !

Vos rengràcio. Thank you.