“Another violation around the use of the Basque Country,” said ARGIA the citizen who has filed a complaint to the thalassotherapy La Perla de Donostia. In addition to the violation, he has denounced the attitude of the Language Rights Service of the Basque Government Elebide. “Not only do they accept this shameful bilingual excuse, but they do not ask or solve the problem. They do not take any action.”

The citizen in January filed a complaint in La Perla, also warned Elebide about the violation of linguistic rights, that is, the La Perla website does not guarantee the right to receive information in Euskera. La Perla argues that when the pandemic began, the Spanish-language version of the website was being renewed and that “the economic consequences of the pandemic, which directly affect the organization, influence that the translations are slower than desired”. They say they are working to publish the Basque version “soon”. Currently they offer information in Spanish, English and French.

In this letter, they state that the organization’s official communication languages are Basque and Spanish, “We apply this to all the media in which we work”. They say that the reason for not being so today are “extraordinary punctual episodes”: “pandemic and its consequences”.

Elebide closes the incidence

The Director of Linguistic Normalization of Public Administrations, Joseba Lozano Santos, responds to the complaint, but does not give him an extraordinary answer, only refers to the letter sent by La Perla and inform the citizen that, if no more has been said, “he will accept” the answer and, therefore, close the incidence.

Elebide manages complaints and consultations on language rights and every citizen can access the service. The number of incidents has increased in recent years, as detailed in the 2021 report. In 2021, 277 incidents were recorded regarding the impossibility of relating in Basque with the administration, both orally and in writing, the deficiencies observed in the labeling, signaling and notices, and, finally, not guaranteeing the presence of the Basque in some contents of the web pages. 84% of the complaints were for violations of rights in the public sphere and the remaining 16% in the private sphere.