The Popular Party has presented an amendment to the entirety with alternative text to the bill that Congress must approve today to reform its regulations with the intention of establishing the free use of Basque, Catalan and Galician in all parliamentary activities. The PP considers that this initiative violates article 3 of the Spanish Constitution, which establishes Spanish as the only official language of the entire territory of the State.
“The Spanish Constitution has not devised a system of co-official status for all languages ??throughout the Spanish territory. On the contrary, it has configured a model of single official status of Spanish throughout the territory and of co-official status of Spanish and the corresponding co-official language in the territory. of the respective autonomous community”, affirm the popular ones in the explanatory statement of their amendment.
Thus, “the attribution of these proper officialdoms to Spanish languages ??distinct from Spanish is not in accordance with Article 3.1 of the Constitution, which enshrines Spanish as the official language of the State, nor with Article 3.2 which circumscribes the officiality of the rest Spanish languages ??to the territory of the respective autonomous community”
In this way, the proposal to reform the Regulation “exceeds the territorial scope of the official status” and “displaces and deactivates the official status of Spanish as the official language of the State.”
The initiative, therefore, they add, does not satisfy the official status of Spanish “with the translation of an intervention or document into Spanish.” In the opinion of the popular ones, this can only be achieved “with the use of Spanish as the only official language of the institution”, while Congress is an institution “of the State” and therefore “has as its only official language that of the State, that is, Spanish.”
The PP cites ruling 31/2010 of the Constitutional Court which in its legal basis 21 states: “In the case of constitutional or jurisdictional bodies of exclusively state nature and significance (…) it must be taken into account that, regardless of the place where their headquarters and from where they receive the impetus to act, their activity is carried out with reference not to a specific Autonomous Community, but to the entire national territory, so language co-officiality cannot have a place in them.
Following this argument, the PP amendment advocates for the “respect and promotion” of all co-official languages ??by the State but insists that this does not imply “extending the effects of officiality outside the scope of the Autonomous Community.”
They also disagree with the appeal to the “desirable democratic coexistence” that the proposal to reform the Regulation exhibits, insisting that this “does not allow altering the linguistic system designed in the Constitution.” And they point out that “only within respect for the Fundamental Norm (…) can democratic coexistence be achieved.”
They also point out that the proposal to reform the Regulation that is intended to be approved today “does not regulate the procedures and mechanisms of translation and interpretation that enable adequate understanding by the deputies and the citizens they represent of the interventions, writings and actions that are carried out.” produce in languages ??other than Spanish”. In this regard, they include the arguments already put forward by Congressional lawyers who warn of the “immediacy” of parliamentary activity, something that does not guarantee a verified translation procedure, or the need for all deputies to follow procedures “with precise accuracy.” such as oral questions in the control sessions to the Government.
The PP also points out that the initiative “does not arise from the desire for agreements”, but from “the agreements adopted by a political group with minority groups, with the sole objective of gathering the necessary support to obtain the presidency of Congress and for an eventual Sánchez’s investiture”.
