The Council considers that the law is exclusive from the outset of the Basques, because it sets language rights according to geographical limitations and that is “absurd”. Once the official status has been approved throughout the territory, the measures and means that are put in place to guarantee the rights of the Basques “can be different”. The Navarro Council of the Basque Country adopted by an absolute majority the proposal of one third of its members last March: nineteen affirmative votes and three abstentions.

The Council considers that in the last 35 years Navarre society has changed a great deal, “and also the number of Basques in each area. It will be difficult to find municipalities where there is no Euskaldunes”. He points out that during this time a few municipalities have passed from the mixed zone to the vascophony or non-vascophony zone to the mixed zone, but in general the law has hardly undergone modifications.

The council speaks with rigor: “Clearly stated, this law discriminates against Navarros according to their scope, although the law itself states that no one can be discriminated against on the basis of language.” They say that the Basque language is the language of Navarre and that, therefore, the law should protect the right to exercise the activity in Basque in the public sector, which is currently not possible by the Basque law of 1986.

For all these reasons, “the Navarro Council of the Basque Country urges the Government of Navarre to make the Basque Country official throughout the Foral Community of Navarre to amend the Foral Law of the Basque Country as soon as possible, in order to put an end to the legal exclusion of the Basque citizens and to the linguistic rights of the Basque citizens, as the Castilian citizens comply. Councillor Ana Ollo undertook to transfer the request to the relevant bodies.

Against the Foral Order of Merits

Also, on 16 September the Navarro Council of Vascuence challenged the decree of the Government of Navarre regulating merits to be used in public procurement: sixteen votes against and six abstentions. The laws and decrees of the Government of Navarra have to pass through the Council of Euskera, but they are not binding, so the Government of María Chivite will continue with the processing of the decree.

The decree prepared by the government is a setback from the decree approved by the government of Uxue Barkosen in 2017, and in the non-Vascophony zone French, English and German will be valued as official languages of Europe, but not the Basque language of the territory. Only the Basque country is valued as a merit in the Vascophony zone and in a few positions in the mixed zone.