Spanish linguistic imperialism, in the last 40 years called democracies, through the judiciary, has permanently put the Basque country through judicial channels, and has given more than a punch to the progress of our language by shaking the wooden hammers of the courts that are at the root of the kingdom. In the last 40 years, from the courts, wings have often been cut off by the Basque who wanted to be a bird.

To care for and promote Euskera in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country and Navarre (and, of course, in Lapurdi, Nafarroa Beherea and Zuberoa) we need a paradigm shift of the current legislation so that, as in the last 40 years, the hammer of justice does not strike us again and again.

The first Law 10/1982, basic normalization of the use of the Basque Country, approved in the Basque Country, has just turned 40 on November 24. And let us remember — let us not forget — that, in the twenty-first century, the Basque country still lacks legal formality throughout the Basque Country (it does not have full official status in most of the territory of Navarre, where 90% of the Navarros reside, 600,000 Navarros) and throughout the Northern Basque Country, and has never had any legal recognition). Therefore, in the Basque Country of the beginning of the twenty-first century, we are still far from being legislation allowing the full normalised use of our language throughout our territory.

Currently, the Basque Law in force in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country focuses on the linguistic freedom of citizens and linguistic rights. But with the direction that judicial action has taken over the last 40 years, this system based on citizens’ linguistic freedom and language rights has become a double sword. In fact, in a single territory in which the Basque Country has full official status — in the CAV — in the last 40 years, from the courts — establishing the fraudulent principle of the necessary balance between the languages — the Spanish judges have looked more rigorously and passionately at the linguistic rights of monolingual Castilian citizens, establishing the same treatment and symmetrical knowledge for the two languages that are not sometimes in the same situation.

The renewal of the parameters of the linguistic regime is fundamental for the normalization of the social use of Euskera. We must focus on the new legal paradigm in the care and promotion of the respiratory functional areas of natural and spontaneous use in Euskera. The new legal axis should be located in the functional spaces of the Basque Country. We have the intangible heritage of culture as functional respiratory areas of the Basque Country and we have to ensure that they are named so that they receive maximum legal support. We have to put the effort into that. A new direction and a new task of twenty-first century Basque cultural activity must be to try to protect, preserve, break and spread this heritage.

Patxi Saez Beloki, socio-linguist and member of the Euskaltzaindia Development Commission.