Firmly on the road to standardization
- It is known that the Law of the Vascuence of Navarre divided the country into three parts, as far as the Basque Country's official status is concerned: a bilingual area, in which the legal status of the Basque Country was comparable to that of the CAV; a mixed area, in which citizenship had a number of rights, among them studying in Basque, and, finally, a Castilian area, without any right.
Since then, in the following three decades, the situation of the Basque Country in Navarre deteriorated with regard to the Foral Administration: the attempt to economically stifle the Euskaldunization of adults, Euskalerria Irratia and the attitude against the Basque media, the repeated obstacles of the Administration for the learning of the Basque language in education. The situation was so complicated that in 1998 Euskaltzaindia President Haritschelhar himself publicly asked Miguel Sanz for a meeting to discuss language policy. Useless: UPN governments, by decree, continued to take measures against Euskera (372/2000 made the knowledge of Euskera comparable to the foreign language in the administration of the mixed area; Decree 29/2003, for example, against jobs in Euskera in the competitions of Education 2016; the latter, which will soon be repealed by the new decree that will regulate the use of Euskera in public administrations).
It can be said that we wanted to prevent the normalization of Euskera at all costs. Therefore, it can be easily understood that social mobilization has had in its sights the Euskera Law.
In three decades the Basque Country has experienced few legislative improvements in Navarre: In 2010, three municipalities passed from the Castilian speaking area to the mixed, but the real changes occurred later. In 2015 there was a great qualitative change, extending the right to Basque learning to public education across the country; the largest quantitative change occurred in 2017: 44 municipalities have managed to move from the Castilian speaking area to the mixed one. Both go hand in hand, since in the current social situation it is essential to integrate the Basque right into the laws so that the daily practice establishes it normally among the citizens. To this end, it is essential that the government be a driving force, not an obstacle, and that we all know that we are going to make a journey based on the defence of rights, which is what gives us the support of Navarre society.
The reception and attitude of society are the aspects that must be changed as a matter of priority in the future. The Navarre language must be removed from the political conflict, and that is everyone’s responsibility. The current legal framework provides us with a broad framework of work for the promotion of the Basque Country, and the Government will therefore try to carry out this task with the greatest possible effort. Until consensus is reached on the adoption of a new Foral Law in Parliament.
In short, it will be necessary to seek that all Navarros, regardless of their ideology, consider the Basque Country and its promotion normal. In other words, one of the most important functions is to neutralise opposition to language. To do so, we must extend our commitment to the normalization of the Basque Country to all the ideological sectors of society, beyond the national approach they defend.
María Solana is Minister of Education and spokesperson for the Government of Navarra
The Navarra Federation of Municipalities and Councils was born with the objective of "protecting and promoting their shared interests and local autonomy". A Communication Officer will soon be selected who will have to master Spanish and Basque.
For the PSN-PSOE rejects it... [+]
