Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

POLITICS

As it happened: Spain MPs use Catalan, Basque, Galician in Congress

Spanish lawmakers were from Tuesday allowed to address parliament in Catalan, Basque or Galician, fulfilling a demand from Catalan separatists whose support is crucial for Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to remain in power.

Published: 19 September 2023 16:19 CEST
As it happened: Spain MPs use Catalan, Basque, Galician in Congress
Gabriel Rufián, head of separatist party Republican Left of Catalonia, was among MPs to address the Spanish Parliament in a co-official language. (Photo by Andres BALLESTEROS / POOL / AFP)

But the measure was fiercely opposed by the right, with lawmakers from far-right Vox walking out as members of Sánchez’s Socialist party addressed the assembly in Galician.

They also returned the earpieces that would allow them to hear a simultaneous translation.

“We don’t want to be complicit of the breakdown of our co-existence,” the head of Vox’s parliamentary group, Maria Jose Millan, told reporters.

Vox rejects Spain’s current system of devolved regional powers and has proposed a national referendum to ban separatist parties.

The main opposition conservative Popular Party (PP) meanwhile demanded that the use of minority languages in the assembly only be allowed once the rules on their use are formally approved on Thursday.

Catalan, Basque and Galician, which are spoken in various regions, are all classed as co-official languages in Spain, where the official language is castellano, or Castilian Spanish.

Alongside Spanish, these languages are taught in schools and used in the respective regional administrations and parliaments in Catalonia in the northeast, the Basque Country in the north and Galicia in the northwest.

Being permitted to use these languages in debates in the Spanish parliament has long been a demand of nationalist parties in these regions.

“This is a historic day… Finally the rights of Catalan speakers are being respected,” Miriam Nogueras, a Catalan lawmaker from Carles Puigdemont’s hardline JxCat party, said outside parliament.

READ MORE: Why Spain has allowed regional languages to be spoken in Congress

JxCat unexpectedly emerged as kingmaker following Spain’s inconclusive July 23rd election.

It has since laid out a string of demands in return for its support to ensure Sánchez, currently in an interim role, can stay on as prime minister.

Allowing the use of such languages in the assembly was one of JxCat’s demands in exchange for its support to ensure the election of Francina Armengol as parliamentary speaker, the candidate from Sánchez’s Socialist Party.

Puigdemont headed Catalonia’s regional government during the botched 2017 independence bid that sparked Spain’s biggest political crisis in decades.

He fled Spain shortly after to avoid prosecution and has since lived in self-imposed exile in Belgium.

Spain’s EU language debate

JxCat also demanded Madrid ensure that Catalan, Basque and Galician were recognised as official languages of the European Union, a question which was being debated by the bloc’s top diplomats earlier on Tuesday.

The EU currently has 24 official languages, although there are around 60 minority and regional languages in the bloc.

The inclusion of any additional official languages must be agreed unanimously by all 27 member states.

But the proposal drew objections, with the EU debate postponed as ministers from the bloc sought more time to mull over the issues.

READ MORE: EU States reluctant to add Catalan as official language

Spain’s general election resulted in a hung parliament.

The right-wing Popular Party won most votes and its leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, has been tasked with forming a government, despite lacking a working majority within the 350-seat assembly.

Should he lose the parliamentary vote to become prime minister on September 27th, the task of forming a government will pass to Sánchez.

Sánchez will then have two months to piece together a governing majority – which will only be possible with support from JxCat’s seven lawmakers.

If he also fails, Spain will have to call new elections, probably in January.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.
For members

POLITICS

Who will win the European elections in Spain?

Spaniards will soon vote in European elections. Here's what the polls say and which party is likely to come out on top.

Published: 31 May 2024 15:51 CEST
Who will win the European elections in Spain?

From June 6th to 9th, millions of people across Europe will go to the polls to elect members of the world’s only multinational parliament. In Spain polling day is, as always, on Sunday, so Spaniards will head to the polls on June 9th.

This comes at a politically delicate time not only around the world (economic uncertainty, conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, major elections in India, the U.S and U.K this year, among other issues) but also in Spain.

After the Spanish government finally passed its controversial amnesty law for Catalan separatists on May 30th, many political pundits in the country are viewing the upcoming European polls as a referendum on the government and Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez in particular. If the Spanish right win a comfortable victory, as most polls predict, they may call for a general election.

READ ALSO: 10 things you should know about the European Parliamentary elections

If you’ve followed Spanish politics in the last year or so, you’ll know that it’s been something of a telenovela (soap opera), even by Spanish standards. Whether it be surprise snap general elections, Catalan separatists propping up the government, Spain’s Transport Minister saying the Argentinian President was on drugs, or Sánchez’s jaw-dropping five day sabbatical to decide whether or not he wanted to continue, Spanish politics is many things but certainly never boring.

We won’t go into too much detail now, but you can find all The Local’s political coverage here to get up to speed.

The important thing to understand is the political unpredictability that makes up the background to these European elections. And like with local and regional elections in Spain, these European results will be picked apart by politicians and pundits alike in order to score points, find deeper meaning and underlying trends, and make predictions about what they mean for the future.

READ ALSO: Spanish parliament approves controversial Catalan amnesty bill

Following recent regional elections in Galicia, the Basque Country and Catalonia, and on the back of regional and general elections last year, at times it can feel like Spanish politics is a never ending series of elections.

As such, Spanish pollsters are always busy. In recent weeks, they’ve turned their attention to the European elections.

Let’s take a look at some of the polls and what they’re predicting.

CIS

The pre-election poll conducted by the Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas (CIS) gives Sánchez’s Socialists (PSOE) a considerable lead over the right-wing Partido Popular (PP). It is worth noting here that the CIS is state-run, and therefore sometimes accused of being overly sympathetic to the government of the day, in this case PSOE.

CIS estimates that the PSOE will obtain between 32.8 percent and 35.2 percent of the vote, winning between 21 and 24 seats, followed by the PP with between 27.9 percent and 30.2 percent, which would give them between 18 and 20 MEPs.

In third place would be far-right Vox with 5 or 6 projected seats on between 8.6 percent and 10.1 percent of the vote.

On the far-left, Spain’s parties have been divided of late. In short, there’s been a split between Sumar, the current junior coalition member in government, and Podemos, the former junior coalition member in government. An interesting wrinkle to the European campaign is the reemergence of Irene Montero, Spain’s controversial former Equalities Minister, onto the political scene, who will be heading the Podemos list.

CIS projects Sumar will win 4 MEPs with between 5.9 percent and 7.2 percent of the vote.

Podemos is, according to CIS, on course for a vote share somewhere in the range of 4.4-5.4 percent, which would garner 2 or 3 seats. In 2019, the two parties ran together as Unidas Podemos and obtained 10.17 percent and 6 MEPs, so the split could propel the far-right into third place in Spain.

NC Report

The NC Report poll commissioned for La Razón published paints a very different picture to the CIS results, and gives the PP a comfortable victory. NC polling has the PP winning 36.1 percent of the vote and 24-25 seats. If the PP do win, it’s likely that it will heap pressure on Sánchez and call for a general election.

PSOE were projected to win 27.9 percent of the vote, almost ten points behind the PP, and 19 seats.

Where the NC poll does mirror the CIS results is that it puts Voxs in third place (9 percent of the vote, 6 seats).

Of the other parties, it has Sumar (6.8 percent, 4 seats), Ahora Repúblicas (5.2 percent, 3 seats), Podemos (3 percent, 2 seats), and Catalan separatists Junts (2.9 percent, 1-2 seats).

Sigma Dos

The Sigma Dos poll published by El Mundo also gives victory to the PP with 35.1 percent of the vote and 24-25 seats.

The PSOE would come second and win 19-20 seats with 30.2 percent of the vote.

Sigma Dos also had Vox in third place (meaning all three major polls had the same result) obtaining 9.7 percent of the vote and 6 or 7 seats. Sumar was projected to win 7 percent of the vote and 4-5 seats, followed by Podemos (2 seats), Junts (1 seat) and new upstart political party ‘Se acabó la fiesta’ (1-2 seats)

For more on the 2024 European elections across Europe visit The Local Europe’s special election web page.

CIS is the only major poll putting the PSOE on course for victory.

SHOW COMMENTS