The legislative process to protect multilingualism in the State has begun.
The authors of the initiative introduce clear obligations for language training in the justice system, civil service, and procurement, and provide tools to ensure respect for the right to language choice.
PalmCongress has given the green light to process the law to safeguard multilingualism in the State, promoted by ERC, Comuns, Bildu, PNV, BNG, MÁS per Mallorca, and Compromís. Despite not having proposed it, both the PSOE and Junts also voted in favor of the initiative. This proposed organic law guaranteeing multilingualism and the linguistic rights of citizens aims to ensure that any citizen can exercise the right to interact in Basque, Galician, or Catalan with the judicial bodies, constitutional institutions, and the general administration of the State "with full freedom." The authors of the initiative introduce clear obligations for language proficiency in the justice system, the civil service, and public procurement, and provide tools to ensure respect for the right to choose one's language.
Vicenç Vidal, the Más MP for Mallorca, recalled Josep Maria Llompart during his speech in the Senate, saying that he "would be appalled by the hatred and Catalanophobia of the PP and Vox."
Vidal defended the consideration of the law guaranteeing multilingualism and linguistic rights, which he presented last week with ERC, Compromís, BNG, EH Bildu, PNV, and Comuns. In his speech during the plenary session, he recalled "Josep Maria Llompart, whose centenary is being commemorated this year, and who would be outraged by the hatred and Catalanophobia of the Spanish right wing at the end of 2025."
The eco-sovereignist has also said that "the best response to the attacks is always to be in the streets alongside entities such as the Balearic Cultural Association and Young People of Mallorca for Language, making Catalan a living language."
From the PSOE, MP Marc Lamuá emphasized that his party will allow this initiative to be considered because it has "always" defended a "diverse, plural, and cohesive" Spain, and because caring for the country's languages is "caring for democracy," and guaranteeing their effective use is essential.
In this sense, their partner in the Catalan Government, Sumar, also expressed its support through seven MPs from the plurinational group. Aina Vidal, from Els Comuns, argued that this law "is not a concession or a privilege but the development of a constitutional and European mandate" in the face of the "systematic failures" to defend, promote, and guarantee the use of official languages other than Spanish.
Both the PP and Vox agreed that Article 3 of the Constitution recognizes Spanish as the official language throughout the country and that Basque, Catalan and Galician are also official languages, but only within their respective communities, and therefore, to try to extend this co-official status to all of Spain is to "politically "use" languages, and the socialists are to "always" give in to their "blackmail" and "demands."