I rang parliament a little earlier this morning to check. Did the expensive new multilingual politics plan include translation between all of the different languages? Would there be Basque to Catalan translation, or Galician to Basque for those MPs who wanted it? No, there would not, was the answer. It is only Basque, Catalan and Galician into Spanish, not the other way round and not between the non-Spanish regional languages. Why? Because they all speak Spanish.
So this has nothing to do with MPs understanding each other better. It is a play to please Puigdemont and get Sánchez reappointed PM, as politicians on the right have been pointing out since it was announced. The PP protested, but their spokesman, Semper, did say a few words in Basque, after saying yesterday that conservatives wouldn’t be fooled. Vox walked out, with far-right MPs leaving their translation headphones in the Prime Minister’s empty chair in a sign of protest.
“We have had to hear that this is a temple of words, while they used language not to communicate but to not understand each other and to generate division”, said Vox leader Abascal afterwards: “we have given translation headphones of hatred back to the majority of coup leaders, who would prefer us not to understand each other and would prefer to divide us”.
I think there is some room for symbolism, perhaps, for allowing regional languages to be used in the national chamber, if MPs wish to express themselves in such a manner to make a point rather than get their message across to more people, but can anyone imagine Welsh or Gaelic being used in the House of Commons and politicians listening in with headphones? (Although apparently Welsh is now acceptable at Westminister if it’s used on the Wales committee to talk about Welsh matters).
And even if they decide to use Basque, Catalan or Galician in front of the TV cameras, knowing that almost no one in the rest of Spain who might be watching will understand what they are saying, never mind retweet it, will Basque and Catalan and Galician MPs insist on negotiating with each other in regional languages in the halls of power, once the cameras have been switched off? Of course not. They will speak in Spanish.
The separatists seem happy enough for today, though. Miriam Nogueras, speaking in Catalan for Junts and celebrating the new possibilities for expression, said the war over language in Spain was really about power and oppressing Catalonia, “for years, the obsession with liquidating Catalan identity has been reflected in prohibitions, laws and rulings, along with the sad catalanophobia in most of the Madrid media”.
She also then insisted that not only did they have the right to speak in Catalan but that they also had a right to self-determination, “but we can talk about that in a few weeks time”. That’s where all this is really going. Language, power, identity, dominance, and the unconstitutional amnesty law that is about to be rammed through parliament, or at least a huge attempt made, before Puigdemont and his allies reappoint Sánchez as PM, because they really still want an equally unconstitutional independent Catalonia.
As they have always maintained, they want to do it all again, and Sánchez seems to want to be PM badly enough again to let them try.
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Comment: language, power, identity, dominance