Amidst ongoing electoral battles and the right-wing’s relentless opposition against the future amnesty law and the ever-present corruption issues, the significance of the agreements on multilingualism has not been fully appreciated. These agreements have allowed the use of all official languages in the Spanish Congress and a request has been made to do the same within the European Union. A new state law guaranteeing the use of all official languages before state institutions and the rights of speakers in judicial processes is also set to be implemented. These efforts have been influenced by the latest report from the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe regarding compliance with the Charter of Regional or Minority Languages.
After several meetings of the EU General Affairs Council without addressing the issue, the Spanish government has once again attempted to revive the debate on the official status of Catalan, Basque, and Galician within the Union, though without success. Some member states, including Sweden, Finland, Slovakia, and Estonia, have raised concerns about the economic costs and internal implications of this move. The Spanish delegation is now expected to request a legal opinion from the Council, as some states require this before discussing such matters, considering the exceptional nature of the request and the languages’ constitutional recognition within Spain.
The constitutional linguistic model in Spain recognizes languages other than Spanish at the highest normative level, allowing for their increased institutional use and social acceptance after decades of restrictions and marginalization. However, the linguistic framework established in 1978 is still far from equitable, prioritizing the use of Spanish as the official language of the State. The Constitution mandates that all Spaniards have the duty to know and the right to use Spanish, with the autonomy statutes being responsible for declaring the official status of other languages.
The historical belief in the widespread knowledge of Spanish and the political goal of preserving it as a unifying language have influenced the constitutional approach to linguistics in Spain. This has led to the notion of a “common language”, with the intention of promoting Spanish as the primary means of communication. However, over 40% of Spaniards live in multilingual autonomous communities, where languages other than Spanish are spoken. The political use of minority languages has been criticized, as seen in the recent actions of the Aragonese government and the debates over the linguistic identity in regions like Valencia.
The debate over language identities and the push for linguistic diversity continues in Spain, with political parties and regional governments taking differing stances on the issue. The tensions between linguistic recognition and political agendas highlight the complexities of language policies in a country with diverse linguistic traditions and a complicated history of language rights. The efforts to promote multilingualism and protect linguistic diversity will continue to be a key aspect of the ongoing debate surrounding language rights and identities in Spain.
