- The Observatory on Linguistic Rights denounces that access to public services in Basque is a basic collective right and considers it serious that the High Court of Justice of the Basque Country has prevented the City of Barakaldo from requesting Euskera in public services. On the other hand, the Basque association Sasiburu de Barakaldo has asked for answers to the city council, since "the right to live in Basque in the locality is repeatedly violated".
From Euskalgintza, the judgment of the High Court of Justice of the Basque Country against the guarantee of Euskera services in private companies has been strongly condemned. The last attack on Euskera has been carried out in the services subcontracted by the City of Barakaldo, since the High Court of Justice has ruled that minimum levels of Euskera cannot be required in private positions in charge of the management of cultural projects.
In the public competitions that the City Council took out in 2021, one of the requirements was that the Euskera level be B2 and C1 for administrative and maintenance personnel and C1 for technical personnel. Meanwhile, CCOO used the competition arguing that the conditions did not fit Barakaldo's linguistic reality. These weeks the High Court of Justice of the Basque Country has given the trade union the right.
The Council considers that the judgment has not complied with the law
The Council of Euskalgintza qualifies the sentence as “very serious”. He also recalled that it is not the first case that justice gives “a setback” to the Basque country, and that the underlying problem is the judicialization of linguistic policy, the increasingly reduced and distorted reading of linguistic rights in courts. In this sense, he recalled the case of the local police of Irun or the difficulty of not demanding the Basque in Laudio.
The Council argues that the current legislation allows for the establishment of language clauses in contracts to guarantee the services of public administrations in Basque. For this reason, the President of the Council, Idurre Eskisabel, has sent a letter to the Mayor of Barakaldo requesting the appeal because he considers that the law is favourable: “The court has issued a very weak judgment, because it has not taken into account the decrees currently in force”.
The Council of Euskalgintza has asked the City of Barakaldo to appeal the judgment of the High Court of Justice, since the current decree allows the Basque Country to demand the Basque Country.
"Euskera is a collective right"
The Observatory that works against violations of linguistic rights has followed the same line and has pointed out that, in addition to being legal to require conditions to guarantee Basque to private companies, it is “social justice” to guarantee a collective right.
Regarding the consideration of the socio-linguistic situation, he criticized that “injustices are used to perpetuate” in the courts: “Precisely, to reinforce the gaps and needs that should be taken into account”.
The Basque Association Sasiburu of Barakaldo has also denounced the ruling and pointed out that in the locality the citizens' right to live in Euskera is denied "over and over again": "When we resort to municipal public services, we are often forced to speak in Spanish". They have perceived that they are "much more" Euskaldunes than a few years ago: 30 years ago they did not reach 5,000, and now there are 26,251 Basques and almost 20,000 Basques. The association questions the High Court of Justice’s reading of Barakaldo’s socio-linguistic situation.
Public administration measures
Likewise, ELA opposes the sentence and adds to the claim of the right to live in Basque the work in Basque. Recalls the measures agreed by LAB, ELA and the Council in 2022 to use the 15-year deadline for public administration.