SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA, Oct. 20 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The health of the Galician language, highlighted after the publication of the latest survey on its use and knowledge published by the Galician Institute of Statistics (IGE), will be at the center of the political debate in the plenary session that on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week It will house the Galician Chamber, to which the natural resources law prepared by the regional Executive arrives for final approval.
But the language will continue to be in the spotlight a day after the plenary session ends, given that throughout the 24th, the Minister of Culture, Lingua e Xuventude, José López Campos, has summoned the head of the Legislative Assembly, Miguel Santalices, to several meetings in a row. , and the groups with parliamentary representation (PPdeG, BNG, PSdeG and Democracia Ourensana). The challenge? Seal a new pact for the Galician.
But first, the debate on the state of the Galician language will mark the plenary sessions on the 22nd and 23rd, preceded by two milestones: the Council of Europe report and the IGE survey that, for the first time, indicates Spanish as a language. with more use by the community and reveals that a third of adolescents and school-age children know how to speak “little or not at all” the language of Galicia.
That will be the topic chosen by the national spokesperson of the BNG, Ana Pontón, for her biweekly ‘confrontation’ with the president of the Xunta, Alfonso Rueda, whom she will point out as responsible for the drop in speakers, especially among the youngest, as he is This is “the first generation” educated under the decree of multilingualism. In fact, the Block requested that Rueda appear in this plenary session due to the state of the Galician, something that was met with the ‘no’ of the PP.
The socialists, whose spokesperson, José Ramón Gómez Besteiro, will ask in the control session about the priorities of the autonomous government in the 2025 budgets that will be presented this Saturday, but will also carry out an initiative that aims to contrast the “commitment” of the PSdeG with the Galician with the PP’s linguistic policies.
The popular ones also include two issues linked to Galician on the agenda: the first, through a promotion initiative, to demand from the Government “a fairer distribution” of state aid for audiovisual production in co-official languages and, the second, a question to the Xunta about the measures adopted since San Caetano to promote the use of Galician “and neo-speaking”, especially among the youngest.
REMOTE POSTURES, BUT WILLINGNESS TO TALK
The starting positions seem far apart and the groups have expressed their disagreement with several of the arguments with which the representatives of the Xunta have tried to justify the situation of the Galician, such as with regard to the role of immigration in which this same week was influenced by Rueda and the head of Lingua in his Government, Valentín García, in a commission in the Chamber.
In that same commission, García questioned the IGE data regarding the knowledge of the language by minors and adolescents in the Community, but also expressed willingness on the part of everyone to speak to try to seal an agreement. BNG and PSdeG asked, in the same forum, to focus on the consensus of the General Normalization Plan of 2004.
Rueda himself, after a few weeks with Galician and the multilingualism decree approved in 2010 with Alberto Núñez Feijóo as president (the Council of Europe has recommended that the use of Galicia’s own language be allowed in science subjects) up for debate , has been open to talking.
He has also appealed to do so “without red lines”, although at the same time he has reaffirmed that he sees the problem “more outside the classroom than inside”, he has issued a warning: “cordial bilingualism” is “a treasure” and for his Government, “free choice” remains a maxim.
SEPARATE MEETINGS
Regarding the format of this meeting, it is expected that the meetings between the Lingua Minister and the groups will take place separately and will be held next Thursday in the Galician Chamber, where José López Campos will also meet with the head of the Legislative Assembly. Galician, Miguel Santalices.
Precisely, when asked about this, the parliamentary deputy spokesperson for the BNG Luis Bará confirmed in a press conference that his party will attend this call “with the desire to contribute ideas” and “demand” that the Xunta “correct” the political decisions that “led “to the decline in the use and knowledge of the Galician language pointed out by the survey recently published by the Galician Institute of Statistics.
For the Frontista deputy, the “debacle” that Galicia’s own language is experiencing “can be stopped” if the autonomous government, as the “main” responsible administration, adopts measures.
For their part, PSdeG sources explained that they will attend the meeting with an “open hand to recover the consensus broken by the PP” and “return to the point prior to the Multilingualism Decree.” All this, with the aim of putting proposals on the table to “stop the depatrimonialization of the language.”
“We have to avoid the negative effects on the language that 15 years of Galician government management have caused, with a very significant loss of linguistic heritage, as evidenced in the latest IGE data,” these sources indicated.
In this sense, the socialists appeal to the agreement to use all possible channels to defend Galician, also involving the CRTVG so that the next Galician Media Law does not take a “step back.”
In addition, the deputy of Democracia Ourensana, Armando Ojea, also announced that he will attend the meeting with the Galician Government with the aim of listening to the councilor’s proposals and that, from there, he will evaluate.
Also planning to go, as representatives of the PPdeG, are the parliamentary spokesperson, Alberto Pazos, and the parliamentarian responsible for the area, José Luis Ferro, who has told Europa Press that the popular people have “high expectations” and are “optimistic” regarding the possibility of bringing positions together.
“The situation of the Galician, our main sign of identity, is an issue that matters to all of us. We will all have to talk, approach positions and make compromises,” he stated.