Screenshot of a YouTube video showing protests in the Basque Country in support of immersive teaching France's language policy has long placed French as the only “language of the Republic” and has ignored or even banned the use of more than 20 minority languages spoken across the country. Fast forward to the 21st century, attitudes have changed thanks to a renewed interest in regional cultures, as well as certain legislative measures. The debate has been reignited by a new law passed in May of this year, which aims to protect France's regional languages. The new legislation, entitled the May 21 2021 Law intended to protect and promote regional languages. Also known as the Molac Law, named after the MP Paul Molac who spearheaded the bill, the legislation encourages certain advances in the use of regional languages. The bill recognises the overall importance of these languages by firstly awarding them the status of “national treasure” and, secondly, supporting the teaching of regional languages. The bill even obliges local authorities “to contribute to the tuition costs of private schools that offer bilingual education.” However, the law also has a number of faults and continues to discriminate against speakers of regional languages in two areas: immersive teaching and the use of diacritics (a mark added to a letter indicating a change in pronunciation) specific to regional languages in identity documents. In France, immersive teaching involves placing young children in a learning environment in which almost all subjects are taught in the target language. For example, history or mathematics are taught in Breton or Basque. There are currently 14,000 children who receive this type of education in France. This represents 0.1 percent of all French pupils, though this figure is steadily increasing. Brittany led the way by creating the first Diwan schools in 1977, which offer bilingual education in more than 50 schools across the region. This was followed by the Calandreta schools, bilingual schools in southern France that teach in Occitan, as well as other schools for languages such as Alsatian, Corsican and Basque. These are recognised as community schools and are funded by the State and by the pupils’ families. The schools follow a curriculum approved by France's Ministry of Education and have the status of “contracted private education,” a category that most private Catholic schools also fall under. In the final drafting of the 21 May Law, the Constitutional Council justified its rejection of immersive teaching in regional languages by referring to Article 2 of the French Constitution, which states that “the language of the French Republic is French.” For the French state, centralisation is a fundamental part of its identity, and it includes the role of the French language. French is a Romance language derived from Latin. In the Middle Ages, Latin evolved into two language groups spoken in the territory of present-day France: the langues d'oc (Occitan languages) spoken in the south and the langues d'oïl (Oïl languages) spoken in the north. In 1539, the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts, signed into law by Francis I of France, was the first document to declare that French should be used instead of Latin as the official language of all public documents. Although French initially remained a minority language that coexisted alongside other languages, it gradually became the dominant and exclusive language in all areas of public life: governance, case law, education, commerce, religion, literature and media. In the 19th century, the education system began to reinforce this rejection of regional languages, in particular when the then minister of education, Jules Ferry, banned the use of regional languages in schools under the threat of punishment. State schools across the country displayed signs with the now famous phrase: “No spitting on the ground or speaking Breton” (or Basque, Occitan or any other regional language). Today a government department, the General Delegation for the French language and the languages of France (DGLFLF), is in charge of all the languages spoken in France. The DGLFLF divides all languages other than French into three categories: regional languages spoken in mainland France, non-territorial languages such as Yiddish, Romani or sign language, and the more than 50 languages of France's overseas territories that includes Kanak, Tahitian, and Creole. The 23 officially recognised regional languages represent France's great linguistic diversity. These include Romance (Catalan, Corsican, Occitan, Franco-Provençal), Germanic (Flemish, Alsatian), Celtic (Breton) and non-Indo-European languages such as Basque.