Entities working for minority languages Nogara, Pol Asturianu Initiative, A Mesa Pola Normalization, Linguistics Acció Cultural del País Valencià, Ciemen, Escola Valenciana, Obra Cultural Balear, Òmnium, Plataforma per la Llengua and Euskalgintza Kontseilua submitted the request of Madrid.

Incomprehensible decision

Council Secretary General Paul Bilbao, in the debate in the Parliament of Navarra, called the decision "incomprehensible": "We still do not understand what has happened to the text on the road from Madrid to Pamplona/Iruña. The text presented yesterday in the Parliament of Navarre was exactly the same as that adopted in Madrid." "It is therefore incomprehensible that there should be two antagonistic positions against the same text that is not the same. In fact, he could also abstain, but decided to give a resounding no," Bilbao said.

The representative of the Council explained that although the first document agreed by the agents and supported by ten parties had seven points, the Madrid Congress adopted three after a long debate. Recalls the assessment made on 8 April: "The agents valued that we made a gap with the three points that Congress approved and that, after all, they collected basic elements. We thought it appropriate that the party had reached that consensus, and we had no doubt that if these texts were to reach the regional parliaments they would receive the same support."

It must be borne in mind, at least, that the following point adopted in Madrid is directly linked to the Navarre reality: "Encourage and protect statutory reforms for the officialdom of one's own languages, when they are not official in the part of the territory where they are spoken or in the whole territory".

"It was very clear that when we talk about part of the territory, among other things, we are referring to Navarra, and that is why we decided to write the text in that way. Thus, even when they voted in Madrid, they already knew the consequences of this point," the representative of the Council said. As for the official position in other communities, he said that it does not create any problems, but it does in Navarre.

Next steps

The social partners in favour of minority languages have requested an appointment with the Minister for Territorial Policy and Public Service of the Spanish Government to ask him how he is going to implement what is contained in Bill No of Law adopted by Congress: "It should be remembered that the Congress of Deputies has instructed the Government of Spain to comply with these points, so it is up to the government to promote these statutory reforms in the autonomous communities," he added. He also said that paradoxical situations are going to be created, because in some places the PSOE is going to go and in others it is going to stop.

Bilbao has been concerned about all the obstacles that the PSN is putting in the sphere of Euskera: "Among other things, to value the knowledge of Euskera in public positions, to develop education in Euskera... Thus, it is true that yesterday's vote is linked to the linguistic policy it bears".