A few minutes after noon this Tuesday, September 19, 2023, the Socialist deputy of Lugo with absolute precision to translate his words into Spanish. A parallel automatism shook the Vox bench, where a few cries of protest rang out before their deputies stood up and angrily left the room, placing the translation devices on the empty seat of Pedro Sánchez, who was setting off on an official trip to New York. The small commotion interrupted the session for a few seconds until Besteiro could continue: “…In short, make this parliament more like the country it represents.”
The Congress thus initiated a new stage: for the first time in 45 years of democracy, debates can be held in Spanish – the official language of the state – or in one of the three official languages of several autonomous communities. The use of Galician, Catalan and Basque began even before its official approval. This provoked another earlier protest, in this case from the ethnic group, whose spokesman, Cuca Gamarra, questioned before the start of the session that the unrestricted use of one of the three languages was already permitted when the extraordinary plenary session was convened to do just that joint law between PSOE, Sumar and the nationalist groups to reform the Chamber’s rules of procedure and consecrate its new multilingual vocation.
The president, socialist Francina Armengol, responded that the current regulation does not contain any indication of the language to be used and therefore does not prohibit what is beginning to happen. Nevertheless, the proposing groups will maintain the new language uses enshrined in the standard that governs the functioning of the Congress. And they will do so quickly, through the so-called single reading procedure, which will allow the proposal to be finally adopted next Thursday without having to first go through the ordinary procedure in committee. The government managed to win a majority of 179 seats for the initiative, joining the only parliamentarian in the Canary Islands coalition who had remained outside the majority that gave Armengol the presidency of the chamber last August, precisely with it the obligation to allow the use of co-official languages as one of the basis of the agreement.
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In the morning, the interventions took place in different languages. Besteiro was followed by another Galician, Sumar’s speaker, Marta Lois, who combined the two languages, just as the only BNG parliamentarian, Néstor Rego, did in various interventions. Gabriel Rufián from ERC and Míriam Nogueras from Junts spoke exclusively in Catalan. Joseba Agirretxea from PNV also used only Basque, while Mertxe Aizpurua from EH Bildu introduced some paragraphs in Spanish. One heard numerous personal and sentimental appeals to the connections with their respective native languages, as well as quotes from great poets who wrote in them: Gabriel Aresti, Salvador Espriu, Álvaro Cunqueiro… A general tone adopted by Borja Sémper from the PP. It was an “epic hypoglycemia,” although he himself, who the day before thought that speaking languages other than Spanish in Congress would mean “making a fool of yourself,” introduced several paragraphs in Basque.
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Very few MPs used headphones in the chamber. In the case of the PP, it was a deliberate move to make their opposition clear. The translations could also be followed by the subtitles, which appeared on the large screens with a few seconds delay. But the leader of the PP himself, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, devoted himself to looking at his cell phone during the Peneuvista Agirretxea’s intervention, which earned him ridicule from Rego. “It seems that he learned Basque before English,” said the BNG MP ironically, who also accused him of voting “indecently” against the measure, “who was president of Galicia for 13 years.”
In defending the PP’s position, Sémper focused more on questions of form than substance. He emphasized that his group defended Spain’s “cultural diversity” and particularly criticized the haste with which this was being dealt with. “And that is because your partners do not trust you,” he discredited the PSOE, which, he recalled, had voted against a similar initiative of nationalist groups just over a year ago. “We have a common language that allows us to understand each other without doing strange things,” he argued, concluding: “We will not take part in this theater.”
Vox’s resistance showed not the slightest nuance. His deputies even played a humorous moment. After their first presentation, they returned to the room to continue the PP’s intervention. But as soon as Sémper spoke the first words in Basque, they gave up again. Then his spokeswoman, Pepa Rodríguez Millán, railed against what she called an “artificial Tower of Babel” built to please those who “want to dismember Spain.”
On the government side, speeches focused on praising Spain’s linguistic diversity and highlighting that what is now being implemented in Congress has been common practice in regional parliaments for decades. The nationalists seized the opportunity to claim the nationality of their respective territories. Rufián from the ERC accused the right of “intransigence” and “ode to ignorance” for radically opposing the measure. And he caused laughter in the chamber when he stressed that the real threat to Spanish was the massive introduction of English words into everyday speech, prompting him to parody: “We can discuss this in coworking by looking at our outfits… “.
The sudden change of position by the PSOE, which had opposed this measure for years, sparked criticism from its own partners. “The defense of language rights by some seems to be in direct proportion to their political needs,” said Agirretxea (PNV), without naming names. In the same vein, Míriam Nogueras from Junts pointed out that the proposal is not being pushed forward out of “conviction, but out of necessity”. The satisfaction he showed with the measure did not discourage Nogueras from his usual defiant tone. He expects Congress to debate “self-determination” in “a few weeks” and suggests that his group will not back down from the threat of unilateralism: “We are not giving up on any of the paths to achieving freedom.” [de Cataluña]“.
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