Current:Home > InvestSpain allows lawmakers to speak Catalan, Basque and Galician languages in Parliament -MacroWatch
Spain allows lawmakers to speak Catalan, Basque and Galician languages in Parliament
View
Date:2025-04-11 20:54:53
MADRID (AP) — Spain’s Parliament allowed its national legislators to use the country’s minority languages of Catalan, Basque and Galician for the first time on Tuesday.
The reform of the linguistic policy of Spain’s lower chamber was a demand of Catalan separatist parties to support the appointment of a Socialist as the new Parliamentary Speaker last month following inconclusive national elections in July.
The right to speak languages other than Spanish in the national Parliament is a long-held objective of smaller parties from the regions in Spain’s north that have bilingual populations.
"(This change is) ... to normalize something that is already common for citizens who speak a language other than Spanish,” said Socialist Party member José Ramón Besteiro, who alternated between Galician and Spanish to become the first lawmaker to take advantage of the modification.
The Parliament provided simultaneous translation with earpieces for the 350 members of the chamber as well as for the nationally televised transmission of the session.
The conservative opposition was against the reform, saying it would make debating more difficult.
Spain’s government is also trying to have Catalan, Basque and Galician recognized as languages that can be used in the European Union.
This support of Spain’s minority languages comes as acting Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is hoping to cobble together the backing from nationalist and even separatist parties from Catalonia and the Basque Country to form a new left-wing government.
Catalan is spoken by around nine million people in Spain’s northeast, its Balearic Islands, as well as a small population in France. Galician is spoken by some two million people in northwestern Spain, while Basque has 750,000 speakers in Spain’s Basque Country and Navarra regions.
Spanish is also known as “castellano” or “Castilian” in Spain for its origins in the Kingdom of Castile. It is spoken throughout the country of 47 million people, including the regions where minority tongues survive.
Spain’s 1978 Constitution recognizes its minority languages as co-official along with Spanish in regions where they are spoken. Their use is common in regional parliaments and town halls.
veryGood! (58426)
Related
- Jamie Foxx reps say actor was hit in face by a glass at birthday dinner, needed stitches
- Marching bands have been struggling with extreme heat. Here's how they're adjusting
- FTX founder slept on beanbag at $35M Bahamas apartment: Witness
- AP Week in Pictures: Europe and Africa | Sept. 29-Oct. 5, 2023
- Small twin
- Hand grenade fragments were found in the bodies of victims in Prigozhin’s plane crash, Putin claims
- The Nobel Peace Prize is to be announced in Oslo. The laureate is picked from more than 350 nominees
- NCT 127 members talk 'Fact Check' sonic diversity, artistic evolution, 'limitless' future
- At site of suspected mass killings, Syrians recall horrors, hope for answers
- Republicans consider killing motion-to-vacate rule that Gaetz used to oust McCarthy
Ranking
- Jamie Foxx reps say actor was hit in face by a glass at birthday dinner, needed stitches
- AP Week in Pictures: Latin America and Caribbean
- AP Week in Pictures: Europe and Africa | Sept. 29-Oct. 5, 2023
- Fire sweeps through a 6-story residential building in Mumbai, killing 6 and injuring dozens
- Meta releases AI model to enhance Metaverse experience
- Fire sweeps through a 6-story residential building in Mumbai, killing 6 and injuring dozens
- U.N rights commission accuses South Sudan of violations ahead of elections
- Biden administration hasn't changed policy on border walls, Mayorkas says
Recommendation
Trump invites nearly all federal workers to quit now, get paid through September
Sarah Jessica Parker Proves She's Carrie Bradshaw IRL With Mismatched Shoes and Ribboncore Look
73-year-old woman attacked by bear near US-Canada border, officials say; park site closed
'Cat Person' and the problem with having sex with someone just to 'get it over with'
Rams vs. 49ers highlights: LA wins rainy defensive struggle in key divisional game
Sarah Jessica Parker Proves She's Carrie Bradshaw IRL With Mismatched Shoes and Ribboncore Look
Eligible electric and plug-in vehicle buyers will get US tax credits immediately in 2024
Harvesting water from fog and air in Kenya with jerrycans and newfangled machines