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SPAIN

Use of Co-Official Languages in Spanish Congress: President Armengol’s Announcement and Implications

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The oaths of the deputies of Junts, Esquerra, Bildu and BNG in the Congress of Deputies in Catalan, Basque and Galician served as a prelude this Thursday to the first announcement by the recently inaugurated president, Francina Armengol, which brings news about the use of the co-official languages in the lower house.

From now on, those deputies who wish to do so may use the three languages in their interventions. There will be no transition and the instruction will start to apply automatically. These are the main keys to the decision.

How was the Armengol announcement?

The new use of languages became known through the first intervention of the president as a third authority of the State.

“From respect, all ideas fit and can be defended, accepting without qualms the plurality of thoughts and identities that coexist in our country enriches us,” he said while considering that reflecting that plurality is an obligation to “get much closer to the real Spain “, which is “diverse” and “full of colors and loaded with nuances”.

“To move forward on this path, I want to express my commitment to Spanish, Catalan, Basque and Galician, and the linguistic richness that they represent”, he asserted before encouraging all his lordships to “defend parliamentary democracy” and ” preserve and respect the diversity” that coexists in the country and that the ballot boxes “have brought” to the Lower House.

What does the Rules of Congress say?

The instruction is automatically applied in view of the current wording of the Regulations of the Congress. In addition, the Regulation grants the presidency the power to interpret or complete the wording of that text if there is “omission” or “doubt”.

This is precisely the forecast that Armengol has used. The Regulation specifies that, if a general resolution is issued, it must have the favorable vote of the Board and the Board of Spokespersons.

https://www.elconfidencial.com/espana/2023-08-18/intervenir-constitucion-catalan-vasco-reglamento-tc_3719915/

The PSOE interprets, therefore, that no reform of the rules of Congress is necessary and the provision is applicable from now on.. The acting vice president, Yolanda Díaz, had assured in the last hours that she would “promote” a reform to allow the three languages to be used.

The history of the Senate

Catalan, Basque and Galician have already been used in the Senate since 2010 when, there, a reform approved in the Chamber was applied to allow it. In this case, the norm specifies that, along with their text in Spanish, senators may use any of the official languages in any autonomous community, in accordance with the Constitution and the corresponding Statute of Autonomy for the presentation of written in the Chamber Registry.

Senators may also intervene in plenary session, during the debate on motions, in any of the official languages in any autonomous community, in accordance with the Constitution and the corresponding Statute of Autonomy.

If the author of an initiative presents it in Spanish and, furthermore, in a language that is official in any autonomous community, in accordance with the Constitution and the corresponding Statute of Autonomy, the initiative will also be published in this language..

Abide by the Constitution in Catalan and Basque

Although the use of the language raised doubts during the constitutive session of the Chamber, the use by the deputies of Junts, ERC and Bildu of unofficial formulas to swear or promise no longer leaves room for interpretation.

A recent ruling by the Constitutional Court settled the controversy. The references made to the “legal imperative”, “loyalty to the people of Catalonia”, “the mandate of October 1”, “the defense of those subjected to reprisals”, “the Catalan Republic” and the Basque Republic were supported by the Constitutional Court in a resolution supported by the progressive majority.

The TC argued that the previous use of this type of oaths or promises did not prevent the rest of the deputies from exercising their parliamentary functions “fully”.

SPAIN

Political Tensions and Intrigues Surrounding Spanish Congress Formation

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The tension in the block on the right skyrockets. The PP’s decision to leave Vox out of the Congress Table has raised blisters in Abascal’s party, which now leaves free support for Feijóo up in the air in the face of a hypothetical investiture.

The order of the ultra-conservative party further complicates, if possible, the round of consultations between the popular leader and the King and minimizes the chances that he may be commissioned by Felipe VI to try to form a government as the winner of the 23-J elections.

At this moment, Feijóo only has 139 votes in favour, his own plus that of UPN and CC. Sánchez has just signed a majority of 178 deputies, although his partners have also warned that what happened at the Table does not presuppose that they will support an investiture of the socialist candidate.

“We want explanations”, Abascal warned after the constitutive session of the Cortes. “We are somewhat perplexed because it does not seem that preventing the third political force in Spain from staying out of Congress is recovering democratic normality,” he added..

The Vox leader has assured that, at this moment, he cannot answer the question of whether he will continue to support Feijóo without consideration in case he goes to an investiture session, and that he hopes to speak with Genoa in the short term.

Feijóo has been the most affected of the vote this Thursday. The PP has not managed to tie up even the 33 Vox supports for the Presidency of the Chamber. The ultra-conservative party has voted for its own candidate, Ignacio Gil Lázaro, in protest at Genoa’s decision not to cede one of its four positions on the Board to those of Abascal.

This same Wednesday, the leader of the PP boasted of having tied up 172 yeses. But reality has prevailed and has dealt a hard blow to Feijóo, for whom the attempt to force an investiture with his sights set on an electoral repetition is complicated..

The XV legislature has started with an agreement in extremis between Sánchez and the Catalan independence movement, which has allowed the PSOE to save the first match point against the PP and that the socialist Francina Armengol is the one who presides over the Congress with 178 votes in favor against the 139 that the PP candidate, Cuca Gamarra, has achieved, plus the vote in favor of UPN and the Canary Coalition.

Finally, PSOE and Sumar will have the majority in the body that governs the Lower House, since the former Balearic president is the one who breaks the tie between the socialists and their Sumar partners and the popular ones, with four seats each.

The break between PP and Vox has also had consequences for the distribution of the four vice-presidencies. The first is also retained by the PSOE, with Alfonso Rodríguez de Celis at the helm and 113 votes.

The second will be occupied by the popular José Antonio Bermúdez de Castro, who obtained 73 supports in the first vote. Esther Gil (Sumar) breaks the tie with Marta González (PP) in the second vote and takes the third vice presidency, so the PP retains fourth place.

The popular ones consummate, therefore, their decision not to cede one of their positions to Vox, and Ignacio Gil Lázaro loses his seat as fourth vice president of the Table.

The PNV option

The votes made it clear that the possibility of the PNV returning to the body that controls the Lower House did not come to pass. The idea launched by the PP, in an attempt to wrest the majority of the Mesa from socialists and leftists, has been shipwrecked.

Much further has been the possibility launched by the Canary Coalition to give the jeltzales the Presidency of Congress. Aitor Esteban’s party did not publicly pronounce on this possibility, which was contemplated by Sánchez’s investiture partners, but which did not sound good in the PSOE. Finally, the nationalists have come in unity of action with the socialists in this inaugural vote before reopening the melon of the investiture.

The distribution of the secretariats varied with respect to that of the vice-presidencies, since the PSOE agreed with Sumar and the rest of its allies that the first seat will be for Gerardo Pisarello, a member of Yolanda Díaz’s coalition, but coming from the commons of Ada Colau.

Pisarello received 101 votes to the 77 of the socialist Isaura Leal, who will be second secretary after leaving the leadership of the socialist group. His experience and knowledge of the Chamber is behind the election of the PSOE.

The third and fourth secretariats will belong to the popular Guillermo Mariscal and Carmen Navarro, who was already on the Board after replacing Adolfo Súarez Illana when he left politics. The PP did not want to leave a position to Vox here either, which has re-introduced Ignacio Gil Lázaro for the third consecutive vote.

The control body of the Lower House returns to that imperfect bipartisanship that has, on one side, the PSOE and Sumar, and, on the other, the PP alone after its clash with Vox. At the end of the voting, the newly elected Board has taken its seats and the new president, Francina Armengol, has launched the process of compliance with the position of the 350 deputies.