Alberto Núñez Feijóo speaks Galician in public on a regular basis when he is in Galicia, and if the socialist plans go according to plan, the president of the PP could also use this language in the Congress of Deputies during the debate of his investiture, the September 26 and 27. The PSOE wants to speed up its commitment regarding the use of Catalan, Basque and Galician in Congress in this legislature, an announcement made by the president of the Chamber, Francina Armengol, in her first speech, and for this reason the socialists are preparing an express reform of the regulation that they trust will be approved in the last week of September.
The authorization of the use of the co-official languages ??in Congress is part of the agreement reached by the PSOE with ERC and Junts in exchange for the support of its deputies in the socialist presidency of the Chamber, on 17 August.
The idea that the PSOE is studying, according to socialist sources, is to register a proposal to reform the regulations this week, so that the Bureau of Congress – with a majority of the PSOE and Sumar – can admit it at its meeting next Tuesday and that processed by the emergency procedure, which makes it possible to shorten parliamentary deadlines.
However, the text of the reform is still being negotiated with the parliamentary groups. To approve it, the same votes are needed from the bloc that Armengol made as president of the Congress three weeks ago, which were 178. In other words, in addition to the PSOE and Sumar, there must be ERC, Junts, EH Bildu , PNB and BNG. Socialist sources believe that both the PP and Vox will reject this reform, as will UPN and Coalició Canària, which are in the PP bloc.
For the approval of the reform, two extraordinary plenums will be convened – as the calendar has not yet been set -, one for the reading and another for the final vote, with a period between the two for allegations , Congress sources explain.
At the same time, it would be necessary to hire translators who will be in charge of communicating the interventions in Spanish to the deputies who need to make use of this service. In the Senate, where the co-official languages ??can be used in certain interventions since 2005, they have a team of interpreters who provide their services externally and belong to a job exchange after an examination by the Chamber high A similar system could be transferred to Congress, although for the full investiture the administrative process would have to be sped up, with emergency contracts that would be paid with the remaining funds of the Chamber.
The regulations of the Congress, in their current wording, do not prohibit the use of the co-official languages, but in practice the use has been limited by the different presidents of the Chamber, who to one extent or another have allowed the deputies make quotes or short sentences from the lectern, but not a whole speech.
With the reform, deputies will be explicitly allowed to speak in any of the co-official languages. Thus, its use will be regulated in an even wider way than it is now in the Senate, where Catalan, Basque and Galician can be used since 2005, but only in some interventions: in motions, but not in the full control of the Spanish Government or in the debate on legislative initiatives.
However, and despite having this previous experience in the use of co-official languages, it does not seem that the Senate will expand its use immediately. The first vice-president and spokesman of the Bureau of the Lower House, Javier Maroto, appeared in a press conference to give an account of the meeting of the governing body and, when asked about the matter, said that it would involve reforming the regulations, for which some political group would have to make a proposal and have it accepted by the Chamber as a whole, in which the PP has an absolute majority. Then it could be processed according to the “usual terms”.
Maroto also informed that the Senate has extended for one more week the final formation of the parliamentary groups, since it has not yet received the report that the presidency of the House requested from the legal services to determine the feasibility of the loan of seats of the PSOE in Junts, PNB and Sumar. Maroto said that the drafting of the report “is still in process”. The rest of the decisions were also not discussed, such as the allocation of seats in the chamber or the appointment of deputy speakers.
