The Superior Court of Justice of the Basque Country (TSJPV) has once again overturned several provisions of a rule aimed at promoting the use of Basque in the Administration of Euskadi. The Basque Superior has partially upheld an appeal from Vox and has modified up to nine points of Law 2/2016 on Local Institutions of the Basque Country and decree 179/2019. This court basically strikes down the possibility of local institutions being able to function primarily in Basque, if they so decide, and especially in eminently Basque-speaking municipalities. The ruling also annuls provisions aimed at promoting the use of Basque, prioritizing, for example, that officials first address citizens in Basque and then use the language of their interlocutor’s choice.
The TSJPV bases its argument on another ruling on this regulation by the Constitutional Court, a ruling that was known in July and which, basically, annulled the possibility of local administrations prioritizing, in certain cases, the use of Basque. Basically, Justice points out that the two official languages ??must have equal treatment and that one of them cannot be “considered by public entities as prevalent or preferential.”
On this occasion, the ruling was signed by the Administrative Litigation Chamber, chaired by Judge Luis Ángel Garrido, protagonist of numerous clashes with the Basque Government.
This judicial ruling also comes three weeks after various groups in favor of the Basque language will demonstrate in Bilbao, on November 4, to protest against the recurring rulings of the Justice in relation to the Basque language and, in general, around the regulation of the coexistence of the two co-official languages. Not in vain, in recent times judicial pronouncements on the matter have accumulated and some have caused considerable anger in a large part of Basque society.
Most of the annulled precepts have a very specific context and have to do with a historical claim by some municipalities located in eminently Basque-speaking areas. Thus, Law 2/2016 and Autonomous Decree 179/2019, gave a letter of nature and legal protection to the request of these town councils to channel their operations only in Basque, because it is the language of habitual use and because it is a measure that, In his opinion, it would allow further development of the normalization of a historically minoritized language.
The regulations now partially annulled by the TSJPV included this possibility, as long as it did not undermine the freedom of citizens to choose the language in which they would be served by the Administration. These precepts, for example, allowed these town councils to prepare their calls, agendas or minutes only in Basque, although it was stated that this decision could not “harm the rights” of citizens and that in the event that someone requested a version in Spanish of said documents “a translation will be provided to the other official language.”
In any case, the ruling of the TSJPV goes further than that of the Constitutional Court and also annuls the precepts aimed at promoting the use of Basque in the Administration, sections that were included in order to promote the use of the Basque language.
A good example is article 27 in section a: “The staff of local entities and other entities that make up the local public sector of Euskadi, in the first instance, will address the citizen in Basque, and will continue in the language in the one that this or that one addresses.”
The TSJPV annuls the precepts of this nature, understanding that “they violate the co-official nature and equality included in articles 3 and 14 of the Constitution.”
In this way, the Superior annuls the following articles of Law 2/2017 and Decree 179/2019: article 9.2, aimed at promoting “the functioning of the municipality in Basque”, especially in eminently Basque-speaking areas (uses the concept of arnasguneak, used for areas where Basque is predominant, although in the Spanish sentence it is poorly translated); section 1 of article 11, which states that city councils will regulate the criteria for oral and written use of co-official languages; or article 12, which states that entities “shall plan and regulate” Basque as a “service language and working language of normal and general use in their activities.”
The TSJPV Ruling also annuls the following precepts: article 18.1 on the possibility of writing official documentation in Basque, always “without harming the rights of any member of the local entity”; 24.3 on the possibility of entities to “determine the criteria for the use of languages”; 27.1 in section a, on the possibility for officials to initially greet in Basque and continue in the language of the citizen’s choice; article 27 in section e, which states that general verbal messages will be made first in Basque; Article 36 in section 7, which states that the conditions of execution of the contract “may include the regulation regarding the language that will be used in the relations between the contracting entity and the successful bidder”; article 36 in section 8 b, on the use of Basque in oral matters between successful bidders and citizens; and, finally, article 36 in section 10, which states that the entities “may determine that the studies, projects and similar works entrusted to third parties by the entities be written, at least, in Basque.”
Vox has celebrated this ruling and has pointed out that “justice stops linguistic tyranny, it does not attack Basque.”
The Basque Government has a period of 30 days to appeal this ruling before the Supreme Court.
