THE SLOW RECOGNITION OF SPANISH PLURILINGUALISM by Albert Branchadell (Lecturer at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and chairman of Organització pel Multilingüisme) and Joan Moles (executive spokesman of Organització pel Multilingüisme)

Introduction
Given its internal linguistic diversity, Spain is a country comparable to other western democracies such as Switzerland, Belgium or Canada. In contrast to these countries, however, Spain does not have a state language policy of protection and promotion of its internal linguistic diversity. One of the fields in which such circumstance is evident is that of state symbols as, for instance, currency, post stamps or the citizens' personal documentation itself. In Belgium, for example, French-Dutch bilingualism was introduced to metal coins, paper money and post stamps more than one century ago (1886, 1888 and 1891 respectively), whereas the German language has been present in them more recently. In Spain, on the contrary, Spanish is to this day the only one language used in all such elements.
For some time past, some political parties from Catalonia and from all over Spain have been undertaking a series of parliamentary initiatives aimed at reversing this situation, pursuant to the recognition of Spanish languages other than Spanish as a consequence of the constitutional precept concerning the "respect and protection" of the Spanish linguistic diversity.
Within this context, there exists ever since 1999 a non-politically related private association called Organisation for Multilingualism, whose main social goal is "to move forward the full political and institutional recognition of the linguistic plurality in the Spanish state" (http://www.om-plural.org/). Two out of the four Act Proposals included in the present dossier (Euro coins and posts stamps) have been directly developed by the Organisation for Multilingualism, whereas the subject matter of the other two (identity cards, passports and driving licenses) is the object of the campaign which the same association is intending to undertake very soon (http://www.om-plural.org/documents).

Euro coins. Members of what was going to become the Organisation for Multilingualism, who were at that time carrying out the campaign "For a plural euro" (http://www.om-plural.org/euro), put forward, by means of the Esquerra Republicana group, the question on the linguistic status of the Spanish euro coins in the Parliament of Catalonia, which on October 27th, 1998, agreed to submit the Act Proposal on the use of the Spanish languages in the issue of bills and the coinage of metal euro coins to the Spanish Parliament. The third article of this proposal stated that the inscription chosen by the Spanish government to be written in the Spanish face of the coins ("España"), had to be coined in all the official languages (that is to say, in Spanish but also in Catalan, Basque and Galician). On March 9th, 1999, the Spanish Parliament, where the Popular Party did not have an absolute majority, agreed to take this proposal into consideration (286 votes in favour, two against and six abstentions). The Act Proposal started to be studied within the Commission of Economy, although Catalan political parties did not take advantage of the political opportunity (minority government of the Popular Party) allowing the VIth legislature (1996-2000) to end without the elaboration of the Act claimed by the Parliament of Catalonia. During the VIIth legislature, the Parliament of Catalonia insisted on its claim. This time, the Spanish Parliament, in which the popular Party has now an absolute majority, did not even accept to take the Act Proposal into consideration in the voting that took place on the 12th December, 2000 (137 votes in favour, 166 against and one abstention.)

Identity cards and passports. In the framework of a wider series of measures aimed to allow the normalisation of Catalan in the scope of the state, the Parliament of Catalonia agreed, on December 16th, 1998, to submit to the Spanish Parliament the Act Proposal on the incorporation of the official languages of the Spanish state to passports and identity cards, according to which these documents should be written in the official language of the autonomous communities' own language and in Spanish, being the former ones written in first place. On April 13th, 1999, the Spanish Parliament agreed to take this Act Proposal into consideration (287 votes in favour, one against and three abstentions.) As in the case of euros, the act proposal was partially studied by a parliamentary commission (in this case, Justice and Internal Affairs), but the VIth legislature (1996-2000) ended up without the elaboration of the Act claimed by the Parliament of Catalonia. In the VIIth legislature (2000-2004) the Parliament of Catalonia insisted on its claim and, as in the case of the euros, the Parliament rejected to take the Act Proposal into consideration in a voting that took place on February 6th, 2001 (140 votes in favour, 161 against and three abstentions). The Popular Party defended its negative vote arguing that regulatory proceedings were more effective than legislative ones in order to introduce plurilingualism; accordingly, one day before the voting, the Popular Party tabled a Not-Acting Proposal in the Parliament urging the government to adopt the necessary regulatory dispositions so that any identity card (not passports) issued within the territory of the autonomous communities which have an official language besides Spanish, should also be written in this language. This Not-Acting Proposal was approved in the Parliament on March 13th, 2001.
Driving licenses. On the very same December 16th, 1998, the Parliament of Catalonia agreed to submit the Act Proposal on the incorporation of the official languages of the Spanish state to driving licenses for cars and motorcycles to the Spanish Parliament. The fate of this Act Proposal has been the same as that of identity cards and passports: it was taken into consideration by ample majority on May 11th, 1999 (261 votes in favour and four abstentions) and studied by a commission until the end of the VIth legislature (1999-2000) and, once the VIIth legislature was again presented (2000-2004), the initiative was rejected to be taken into consideration on February 6th, 2001 (138 votes in favour, 164 against and one abstention). As in the case of identity cards, the day before the voting the Popular Party registered a Not-Acting Proposal in the Parliament by means of which the government is urged to adopt the necessary regulatory dispositions so that any driving license issued within the territory of the autonomous communities which have their own official language besides Spanish, should be also written in this language. This Not-Acting Proposal, as that concerning identity cards, was approved by the Parliament on March 13th, 2001.

Post stamps. In the framework of the "Plural stamps" campaign, which seeks to incorporate the languages of the state other than Spanish into post stamps and any other post materials (http://www.om-plural.org/segells), the Organisation for Multilingualism encouraged the approval of a Act Proposal on the plurilingualism of post stamps in the parliaments of the Balearic Islands (May 16th, 2000), Catalonia (June 7th, 2000) and Navarre (June 22nd, 2000.) The same proposal failed in Galicia due to the opposition from the Popular Party which had nevertheless supported it in the three aforementioned autonomous communities; on the other hand, the Act Proposal is awaiting its discussion in the Parliament of Asturias, where it was admitted on June 6th, 2000.) In its voting on March 6th, 2000, the Spanish Parliament rejected to take the three Act Proposals into consideration (Balearic Islands: 140 votes in favour, 165 against and one abstention; Catalonia: 140 votes in favour, 165 against and two abstentions; Navarre: 139 votes in favour, 167 against and one abstention.) Once again, the Popular Party's reasoning was that the presence of languages other than Spanish in post stamps was preferably achieved by means of administrative measures. In relation to this, the vice president of the Spanish government had already answered those town councils having adhered the "Plural stamps" campaign that it is possible "to promote bilingual inscriptions in the philatelic field", as long as the words "Correos" (mail service) and "España" shall not be translated in any case. On March 16th, 2001, the Popular Party submitted to the Spanish Parliament a Not-Acting Proposal on stamps following these criteria.

Final considerations. Despite the fact that the four parliamentary initiatives described in the present report have all failed in the Spanish Parliament, the debate on the recognition of the plurilingual character of the Spanish state has vigorously entered the political agenda and, besides, there is an emerging consensus on the fact that the current recognition of this plurilingual character is clearly insufficient. As regards specific changes, one can at least take for granted that, in a very near future, citizens from the autonomous communities with their own official language will have an identity card written in this language as well, which is now an impossible fact. It is also very likely that Spanish post stamps will cease to be exclusively monolingual -one of its features ever since 1850- and allow a bigger presence of languages other than Spanish. One cannot reject that a change in the parliamentary composition in the Spanish Parliament may in the mid term turn the aforementioned emerging consensus into a coherent set of legislative measures that allow Spain to approach the linguistic practices carried out in other multilingual democracies in the world.