Although he has already announced that he will not do so, the president of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, could address his lordships in Galician in his investiture speech to Congress on September 26 if the deadlines set by the groups are met parliamentarians who yesterday registered the proposal to reform the regulations of the Lower House which establishes the right of deputies to use any of the official languages ??in any autonomous community in all areas of parliamentary activity, including oral interventions and the presentation of writings.
This historical claim by the nationalist parties, that Catalan, Basque or Galician can be used, and even Occitan, will be a reality in three weeks, insofar as the signatory groups of the proposal – Socialista, Plurinational Sumar, ERC, EH Bildu, PNB and Mixed (BNG) – requested the direct processing and single reading of their initiative with the expectation that the Bureau of the Congress, with a majority of the PSOE and Sumar, would qualify it next Tuesday and that the plenary for its debate and approval be held the week of September 19 to 21, therefore, the supports are assured. The reform would take effect immediately.
However, the Junts parliamentary group, which had demanded the measure, did not sign the proposal. Sources from the post-convergents argued yesterday that they are not part of “any bloc” nor are they “partners of anyone”. However, they pointed out that the registered text is “votable” for their group, since it includes the modifications they consider necessary with respect to the text that the PSOE presented last week after seeing “guaranteed” that Catalan is “always on equal terms with Spanish”. They specifically referred to the obligation to submit Spanish translations of documents submitted in another language, an obligation that would be limited only to a transition period that should not exceed six months.
This modification of the regulations responds to the commitment announced by the president of the Congress, Francina Armengol, on the day of her election, to allow the use of all official languages ??from that same constitutive session, and was one of the conditions that Junts and Esquerra put to give their votes to the candidates of PSOE and Sumar so that the left obtained the presidency and the control of the Bureau of the Chamber three weeks ago.
Precisely for the initiative to see the green light in plenary, the same votes are needed from the block that President Armengol made, that is, the signatories plus Junts, which add up to 178, while PP, Vox, CC and UPN are expected to vote against it (172).
The proposal envisages that the Congress will have the necessary translation and interpretation services from the same investiture session of the leader of the PP so that oral interventions can be made in any of the official languages.
Regarding the case, Feijóo made it clear yesterday that he has no intention of using Galician. “I’m Galician and I speak my two languages, but I can’t imagine a Congress with earmuffs”, he said on his X account – formerly Twitter -. “If all politicians communicate in the common language, it is not appropriate for citizens to pay to understand us in the chamber. Puigdemont and Díaz did not need a translator”, added the popular leader.
The reform foresees a maximum period of six months to have the necessary means to process the documents presented in an official language other than Spanish. During this period, deputies who present their writings in an official language other than Spanish, must accompany the translation into the aforementioned language. After this period, the deputies “can”, if they want, present the Spanish translation.
Also, the Official Bulletin of the General Courts will publish the initiatives in the official language in which they are presented, in addition to Spanish, and in the same way in the Diary of Sessions all the interventions and agreements adopted in the plenary sessions will be reproduced in full, the Permanent Council and the Commissions.
It should be noted that the proposal registered on Wednesday does not at any time list the languages ??that will be allowed in Congress and refers to “languages ??that have official status in some autonomous community in accordance with the Constitution and the corresponding Statute of Autonomy” . This avoids any conflict over the use of Valencian/Catalan and opens the door to even speaking in Aranese (Occitan), since this language is official in Catalonia, according to the current Statute.
In this sense, Esquerra, one of the signatories of the initiative, claimed yesterday the pact with which “the agreement reached between PSOE, Sumar and ERC is certified”, he recalled that the understanding that has been reached gives way to “a historic claim” and emphasized that it will allow the use of Occitan (Aranese) in Congress while guaranteeing the linguistic unity of the Catalan language.
