The Constitutional Court censures Prohens for eliminating Catalan as a requirement in healthcare via decree-law

PalmThe Constitutional Court (TC) has declared unconstitutional various articles of Decree-Law 5/2024, which the Government approved in December 2024 to amend the PP's error in the parliamentary vote on the Administrative Simplification Law, when it unintentionally approved a package of amendments from Vox. Specifically, the point that consolidates the elimination of the Catalan requirement to access work in public healthcare. However, the high court does not delve into the substance of the matter, but rather limits itself to censuring that the Executive used a decree-law, an urgent procedure, as a formula to eliminate it, instead of a law. This does not mean that the measure ceases to be in force, because the PP already introduced it in another housing law, which is also challenged and pending appeal.

The ruling upholds the appeal filed by more than 50 deputies in Congress (the PSOE, Sumar, and the Mixed Group) and concludes that the Government violated the limits of Article 86 of the Constitution, which requires an "extraordinary and urgent need" to issue decrees-law, a situation that the court does not appreciate in this case. In the appeal, these parties considered that "the extraordinary and urgent need that would justify the use of the decree-law" to eliminate the Catalan requirement for healthcare professionals is not appreciated. Furthermore, they consider that "the deficit of healthcare professionals" argued by the Government "has nothing to do with the requirements of knowledge of the Catalan language in selection processes." As an example of this, they state that "in the last stabilization process for healthcare personnel, the majority of professional categories had more linguistically qualified candidates than positions offered".

The PP's mess to eliminate Catalan from healthcare

The left-wing groups, together with the Obra Cultural Balear (OCB), have challenged this decision on several occasions. The PP, for its part, has tried to shield this decision (one of the first measures of President Marga Prohens) by transferring it to different legal texts. Thus, it included it in the Law on administrative simplification that was voted on in November 2024. But during that vote, the popular bench made a mistake for which it still suffers the consequences. The deputy spokesperson for the PP, Marga Durán, confused the meaning of the vote, and they ended up voting in favor of a package of 34 amendments from Vox that raised serious issues, such as eliminating Catalan as a vehicular language in schools and as a requirement for civil servants, that immigrants do not receive aid, and being able to build in specially protected natural areas. These amendments also annulled thearticle of the Government that strictly referred to Catalan as a requirement in the healthcare field. After detecting the error, Durán asked to repeat the vote, but Vox refused. This is why the Government was forced to approve a decree-law to rectify what they had just voted on and nullify these amendments. Even so, the Constitutional Court has eliminated some articles.

A doctrinal pronouncement

Although the articles have been annulled, this has no practical effect. The Government has shielded the elimination of the Catalan requirement in healthcare and also introduced it into the text of the Residential Projects Law. Even so, the court has maintained the examination of the appeal to set a doctrine on the formal limits of the decree-law. Be that as it may, this elimination is also pending an appeal by the TC. "It is at this point that it will have to rule on the merits of the matter," explains the president of the OCB, Toni Llabrés. As things stand, then, there is a tie: the TC rejected the OCB's first appeal on the elimination of the requirement for healthcare professionals and upheld its second appeal, but always based on technical issues. In the next ruling, the high court will have to clarify its position on healthcare professionals being able to obtain a permanent position in the Balearic Islands without knowing one of the two official languages, setting aside the formal aspects it has addressed so far.

"We will go to the very end and use all the tools at our disposal to safeguard the linguistic rights of citizens, especially in the healthcare sector, where so many violations occur," insists Llabrés. The PSIB has also applauded the ruling. The second vice-president of the Parliament and deputy, Mercedes Garrido, has positively valued the sentence and has assured that it makes it clear that the Government "is not capable of justifying the urgency for which these articles were incorporated into the Decree-law".