With the aim of channelling the new Education Law, the “consensus” of the institutional photography carried out by the four main political forces of the Gasteiz Parliament has lasted little. The agreement that all the directorates considered exemplary to the public has been rescinded, before the implementation of the project, after the suspension of the educational strike that was taking place and the opening of the beautiful kalapita to the whole sector. Has anyone ever heard someone's minimal self-criticism anywhere? Thus, it is clear that the process and evolution of the Education Act has not been and cannot be exemplary for other agreements.

Time has shown that the serious concerns raised in many sectors and actors of Basque society, especially in the social, trade union and Basque fields, were justified by the “consensus” in the educational field that was considered a historic achievement. When the time comes, the supposed agreement has cracked and criticism has increased: the linguistic model, segregation, curriculum, management, working conditions, funding, the national project… everything has become a problem. We have once again seen that institutional consensus and social unity are two different things, and that the former does not replace the latter.

We are not going to pick up all those criticisms that have been made here, but it is clear that if there is no unity around the Education Act, it is because among these political forces there is no union around the national project for the Basque Country, because one is a direct consequence of the other. This path of corrupt unity is therefore sterile from the national and social strategic point of view, although it serves the electorate of various political forces.

The proposal of Kontseilua, Ikastolen Elkartea, EHIGE, Hik Hasi, LAB, ELA, Steillas and Heiz, among others, proposes to extend a single linguistic model in Basque generalized and inclusive to the entire educational network. If this project is not included in the new Education Act, it will be the new strategic axe of the PNV and the PSE against the national and social project of the Basque Country. As Koldo Tellitu has pointed out, this Education Law does not even refer to the immersion model, because there is no consensus on it. This is how we resolve the differences between us, turning away from the agreements…

And now the PNV-PSE Government is giving a second strategic axe. This time in the field of administration. The Government of Urkullu, prior to the elections in May 2023, has outlined a new Decree on Linguistic Profiles that will seriously affect the administration’s process of Euskaldunisation. Once again, in view of the setback ahead, the Council, ELA and LAB have published the “Proposal for the Euskaldunization of the Public Sector”.

It remains to be seen whether these contributions will be included in the new Linguistic Profiling Decree, but, as in the case of the Education Act, all this has a bad administrative impression.

Because we must not forget that the PSE launched in 2012, when it managed Education, the Decree of Equivalence. In it, the students of ESO studied model D - immersion - in management II. He decided to validate the Linguistic Profile (B2 at the international level of languages and in the terminology of the new Education Act), and those who attended university studies in Basque, the III of the administration. Linguistic profile equivalent to EGA (international level of C1 languages). But we all know that the results of model D in immersion, although they are the best, often do not guarantee adequate linguistic competence, neither at the end of the ESO nor at the end of the university... And yet, will this qualification be recognized to students who have not undergone the whole process? What for?

Does anyone believe that once the immersion of the new Education Law is suppressed and a “multilingual model centered on the Basque language” is put in place, this situation will improve even though the Law stipulates that students must have level B2 at the end of their career? Should we assume these automatic equivalences between Education and Administration in this situation?

The main objective of the new Decree of Linguistic Profiles is not to regulate the use of Euskera by the staff of the Administration, but to influence the knowledge of the Basque workers. Through the “asymmetrical” Language Profiles proposed, “well” speaking in Basque, but they want to open the doors to officials who “cannot write”. Of course, do we have to fill the Basque administration with these asymmetrical Basques that are going to work in Spanish? Would the Administration accept officials who speak “well” of Spanish but “write badly”? Who are these asymmetric profiles for? Perhaps for the new workers who have not been well Euskaldunized by education? And how long?

Do we have to extend the term of administration for another 15 years? And in the meantime, as is the case today, do we have to accept that the thousands of vasco-speaking workers of the administration that we have Euskaldunized and literate continue in Spanish? Do we not necessarily have to put those who have already been Euskaldunized in Basque? The draft of the new Decree on Linguistic Profiles, in which there is no consensus among the four political forces mentioned, is hardly concrete.

In recent decades, thousands of Basque and Basque people through Education have become Castilian speakers in the Administration. There have been many workers who have had to obtain the Linguistic Profile during these years to access their jobs - not politicians - and then, having never used the Basque language in their work, have lost their linguistic training. It should be taken into account that many of these workers, if they do not work, do not have in any other place contact with the Basque Country, either in the family, between friends, at home, or in social life... The effect of the Covid19 pandemic has also been very negative. That's been the sterile dynamic of these years, the one we gained with one hand, the one we lost with the other. Do we have to continue on that? How long?

The new Decree on Linguistic Profiles has many and clear gaps, but undoubtedly the main one is the one on the use of Euskera by workers and politicians. It is not the same that Spanish is a working language, that Euskera is also an administration with a working language or that, being the Basque language a working language, it also serves in Spanish. It goes without saying that our model is the second, but there is no consensus among the four political forces…

In education, they've given us the first hack, but the struggle isn't over. What remains to be seen is the Education Act. Now they want to give us the second overcrowding, in the area of administration. And here the struggle is not over either. We must maintain our own, the popular will that the Basques have shown in the last great KORRIKA.

If it is not possible by law and by institutional political consensus, we must face the challenge of Euskaldunization with civil disobedience. We cannot give in. The Basque society is the one we have to empower. We have to create a huge popular tsunami that overcomes the legal and institutional obstacles and barriers, such as the case of Ipar Euskal Herria. As Bertsolari Jon Lopategi said “Baltza”, “to reach a free people, if we want past tomorrow, to keep the Basque who is the safest weapon”.

Joseba Alvarez

Basque Technician and member of the Left Abertzale