It was just yesterday that an initial door was opened to an initiative of Junts (Together for Catalonia) aimed at reforming the regulations of Spain's Senate to allow the use of Catalan, Basque and Galician in all parliamentary activity. It hasn't even been passed yet, but the right and the far right have already raised their voices. That is what they did today after the spokesperson for the pro-independence party in Congress, Míriam Nogueras, took the first step to presenting the same initiative in the lower house, the Congress of Deputies. All this in the midst of controversy over the lack of protection which the Spanish state's co-official languages have in key areas such as the audiovisual streaming platforms. It is fair to say that these languages do not exist in the Spanish Parliament.
The Popular Party (PP) spokesperson in Congress, Cuca Gamarra, was blunt: no, she said. The PP politician expressed her concern that the Spanish government might "give in" to the wishes of the pro-independence and nationalist groups just to stay in power. Gamarra claimed that "there is an official language here, which is what the 350 deputies speak", and countered that these initiatives "will not improve the day-to-day life of families". She took the opportunity to demand that "the use of Spanish be guaranteed in Catalonia and the Balearic Islands", where, she alleged, it is persecuted.
Far-right Vox then matched the PP's bid. In statements made in the corridors of Congress, the extremist party spokesperson Iván Espinosa de los Montero completely rejected the initiative, which has not even got as far as being registered in the lower house. "All official languages are very respectable, but the common language, with which we all understand each other, should be the official language," said the far-right leader. He did not elaborate on his views, but he complained that Castilian is "underestimated" in Spain, while more and more people speak it around the world.
But if Vox made a passing reference to the subject, Ciudadanos went as far as to call a media conference solely to criticize the Senate initiative over Catalan. Spokesperson Edmundo Bal warned that the plan will triple public spending on interpreters and translators. He took the opportunity to throw more gripes into the pot and denounced that "the PSOE has also accepted that in the Balearic Islands doctors, nurses and police officers should be obliged to use the regional language", a move he described as "nonsense". He denounced the supposed "passivity" of the Spanish government in the face of the "persecution of Castilian" in Catalan universities, "discrimination against teachers who want to give their classes in Castilian".
The Senate initiative
On Wednesday, the full session of the upper house agreed to consider a reform of the regulations, promoted by Junts, which seeks to expand the use of Catalan, Galician and Basque in the chamber. The decision means that the initiative will at least be debated in the regulations committee and that its parliamentary trajectory can continue. In addition to Junts, the PSOE, ERC-EH Bildu, the PNB and the Confederal Left group, among others, voted in favour. Against was the triple right - the PP, Vox and Ciudadanos, in addition to some smaller groups.
The amendment, moved by Junts senator Josep Lluís Cleries, proposes that Catalan, Basque and Galician, Spain's major "co-official languages" - so-called because they have official status alongside Castilian in their territories of origin - be accepted for use in all parliamentary activities of the Senate, including questions to the Spanish government, bills and interventions in committee. Right now, that can’t be done. The three major co-official languages can only be used during debates on motions.