- The bill has been tabled by EH Bildu in the Basque Parliament and the PNV and the PSE-EE have voted against. The Abertzale coalition has stated that with this initiative they intend that the right to know Euskera be "universal". The Basque Government, for its part, already expressed its rejection a month ago in the Governing Council because, in its view, many of the measures proposed are "channelled".
The plenary session of the Basque Parliament held this Thursday in Vitoria-Gasteiz rejected the proposal for a law to guarantee the knowledge of the Basque Country in the CAV. The initiative was voted in favour of EH Bildu and Elkarrekin Podemos, while PNV, PSE-EE, PP-Citizens and Vox voted against it.
The text of the proposal states that "the Common Administration of the CAV has gone a long way and has carried out a specific normative and legislative development to guarantee the right to know the Basque Country", but stresses that all these efforts, outside the educational system, have shown "different dysfunctions" and that the learning of the Basque Country "obliges a significant economic investment".
EH MEP Bildu Jasone Agirre explained that such universality would guarantee the rights of all: "First of all, the right of those who do not want to know Basque will be guaranteed. They will never be able to say that they are discriminated against, because they will have – like the rest – the right to know Euskera." On the contrary, those who currently do not have guaranteed the right to know the Basque Country for "many reasons" will have sufficient conditions under this law.
The proposed law contains several points, the linguistic level of the teaching phase, the levels of compliance of the public administration, as well as, for example, that Euskera's learning be free of charge or free of charge for all adult people of the CAPV, "until reaching a knowledge equivalent to level C1".
The Basque Government does, but does not
The initiative bears a great resemblance to another proposal adopted in the last legislature. On that occasion, the Basque Government gave it its approval, not on this occasion, because, as you said, many of the measures are 'targeted'. In this regard, EH spokeswoman Bildu has denounced this change of opinion "after two years, of a pandemic and of an election", and has recalled that, although the Basque Government has not stopped, the suffering has caused a "setback" in the teaching of Euskera both in schools and in Euskaltegis. Thus, he accused the executive of Iñigo Urkullu of putting "a wall" rather than giving way to "legality".
The Governing Council, for its part, recalled that the 2018 proposal "did not bring any final agreement between the parliamentary groups", but that some points are already in the "Plan" of the Department of Culture and Linguistic Policy, such as the free tuition for level C1 for adults aged 16 to 30.
Thus, the PSE-EE has not considered a new law necessary, while the PNV considers it "sterile" that the "debate of the current Basque country" is limited to gratuitousness, according to Aitor Aldasoro.
The PP-Citizens and Vox have also voted against, according to the latter, "forcing" the citizens to learn Euskera with the proposal for a law and "sinking their competitiveness" in the companies where Euskera has been promoted, as the spokesman for the far-right said in the Chamber.