The Government of Ximo Puig has rejected in its report on the Popular Legislative Initiative (ILP) that demands freedom of choice of language the recovery of place names in Spanish that have been suppressed in recent years to leave only the official name in Valencian .

In this situation are two of the three capitals of the Valencian Community (Valencia and Castellón, which are now València and Castelló), as well as other cities, such as Calp, Dénia, Gandia, Rafel Bunyol and Beniardà, one of the most recent.

There are also municipalities that maintain the two denominations (Alicante/Alacant, Elche/Elx, Alcoy/Alcoi) and in some cases, this question provoked an intense debate between the political parties, as in La Vila Joiosa, which finally also retains the name of Villajoyosa.

As reasons for refusing that the population can officially use the names in Spanish again, in the opinion signed by Mónica Oltra as secretary of the Consell, it is argued that "the objective is to safeguard traditional toponymy as an element that is part of the cultural heritage of all the Valencian people». However, they advocate that each municipality choose between one official language or the other according to the "endonymous form", that is, the original denomination, be it Castilian or Valencian, but only one.

On the other hand, the ILP supported by nearly 40,000 signatures (four times the minimum necessary) proposes that both can be used, a criterion that the Generalitat does not share: "In addition to generating conflicts where there are none, this proposal is not respectful or with the local autonomy and the democratic will of its governing and management bodies, nor with the historical and linguistic tradition of the municipalities”.

From Hablamos Español, the association that carries out this legal initiative and unsuccessfully calls for its debate in the Valencian Courts, they have defended their approach to place names in both languages ​​because "in Spain history is manipulated and the most basic concepts of philology, all with the intention of justifying that speakers of an official language are being prohibited from officially using toponyms in their language.

And they add that "it is going to the extreme of trying to ridicule and reprimand even those who use them well in the private sphere."