The linguistic spectacle of the Spanish Senate and the incoherence of the Popular Party

@ElentirENG ES 10·20·2023 · 7:05 0

Just a month ago, the Popular Party rejected the reform that admitted the use of regional languages in the Congress of Deputies.

The PP rejects the use of regional languages in Congress but will maintain them in the Senate
The leftist kick against the Spanish, the great gesture of Vox and the incoherence of the PP

After criticizing the use of regional languages in Congress...

To justify that rejection, the spokesperson for the Popular Party, Borja Sémper, made a defense of our common language. A few days before, in a public event held in Santiago de Compostela, the national president of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, lamented "the absurdity of the earpiece", in reference to the headphones of the translation systems that the deputies would have to use to understand each other, to despite having a national language: Spanish.

... the Popular Party uses them in the Senate

The Popular Party had the opportunity to demonstrate its coherence with these arguments by applying them in the Senate, where it has an absolute majority. However, this Thursday, in the General Commission of the Autonomous Communities (you can see the video here), the president of the Galician government, Alfonso Rueda (of the PP), made part of his intervention in the Galician language. He was not the only regional president of that party who chose to use a regional language: the president of the Balearic Islands, Marga Prohens, took part in her intervention in Catalan.

I will not say that the attitude of the Popular Party surprises me. I am Galician and I have been seeing for decades how the PP applies the thesis of linguistic nationalism in Galicia, establishing norms that marginalize Spanish and discriminate against its speakers, treating Spanish-speaking Galicians as if we were outsiders in our own land, all while beyond the Padornelo it is dedicated to boasting, cynically, of applying a "cordial bilingualism."

The PP exhibits its incoherence at the expense of our strongest bond

This Thursday, in the Senate, the PP had the great opportunity to demonstrate its rejection of the use of regional languages as an instrument of division, which is for those used by separatist parties. It is true that the existence of these regional languages is a cultural wealth for Spain, but turning our national institutions into a Tower of Babel is complete absurdity, given that we have a common language. In addition to the cost that this entails in translations, a waste paid for by all taxpayers, the message that this parliamentary Babel transmits is that we Spaniards no longer have anything in common, not even language, a language that It has been one of our strongest ties for centuries.

Spanish is a link that we also transmit to other Hispanic countries. Our common language is an element of coexistence that goes beyond our borders, which communicates us with hundreds of millions of people from other countries and which places us in a very prominent position on the world linguistic map. Spanish is our most powerful sign of identity, because it serves as a bridge with that great Hispanic cultural community. It is painful that the PP exhibits its incoherence like this, saying one thing and the opposite, contributing to weakening that bond and doing a favor to the separatists, who have only one purpose: to break the ties that unite us to the Spanish.

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Photo: Efe. From left to right, the regional presidents of Andalusia, Galicia and Catalonia: Juanma Moreno, Alfonso Rueda and Pere Aragonès, respectively.