Summery of the "Juridical Veredict about the linguistic conflict in Asturias"
The Advisory Council of Lawyers for Asturian0.
Introduction . It contains a reference to all the regional and state norms,
proposals of the legislative chambers and tribunal sentences, recognizing the
Asturian language as a legal language .
1.
It reminds of the contents of the
Spanish Constitutional Text with respect to the solution of linguistic conflicts .
2.
It studies the constitutional obligation (article 3.3) about
the special respect and protection that public authorities owe to all
Spanish languages, coming to the conclusion that its concrete contents is
the one collected in the European Charter for Minority or Regional languages,
which is the only legal text in Spain with a concrete and ordered reference
about protective measures. In section 2.4 the non-fulfilment of the Charter
in Spain with respect to the protection of the Asturian language is
studied .
3.
It gives evidence about the non-fulfilment
of the constitutional principle of equality of treatment
that the Spanish State gives to the Asturian language.
4.
It gives evidence about the breach
of article 3.2 of the Spanish Constitution,
the Spanish Parliament failing to recognize the Asturian language as
co-official , contrary to what they did with respect to Catalan ,
Galician and Biscay languages.
5.
Section 5.1 summarizes:
“The
Asturian language is a Spanish language (Introduction)
that according to the constitutional mandate contained in its article 3.3,
should be subject to special protection and respect
by (part 2.1), all public, state, autonomic and local authorities (Part
2.2), Without prejudice to what is established in the very Constitution, the
minimum contents of the duty of
protection is the one collected by the Instrument of ratification in Spain by the European
Charter for Regional or Minority
Languages (Part 2.3) of minimum protection which is not given to the Asturian
language and is otherwise given to the rest of the Spanish languages (Part 2.4)
which does not fulfil the
constitutional principle of equality (Part 3). In the same manner, The
Constitution establishes the state officiality of the Castilian language and the
autonomic co-officiality of the other Spanish languages, whose mandate is not
fulfilled in Asturias (Part 4)”.
In
part 5.2 the instruments used for the discrimination are analyzed: The obscurity
and twisting of article 4 and the non-constitutionality
of 10.1.21, both part of the Autonomous Statute In part 5.2 the
instruments used for the discrimination, the obscurity and the twisting of
article 4 and the non-constitutionality of
10.1.21 are analysed, both from the Statute of Autonomy, four
constitutional breaches (final disposition, article 20.3, articles 1.1, 3.3, 9.2
and 14. and article 3.2 and
an anti-constitutional interpretation of the instrument of ratification
by the Spanish authorities of the European Charter for
Regional or Minority Languages with the following text:
“The
instrument of Ratification by the
Spanish authorities of the European Charter for Regional or Minority languages, starts by declaring that the
languages recognized as official by the Autonomy Statutes of the Autonomic
Communities of the Biscay Country, Catalonia, Balearic Islands; Galicia,
Valencia and Navarre are as much a language as those protected by the Statutes
of Autonomy and covered by the territories where they are traditionally spoken-
That for the Committee of experts in charge of controlling its application were
Asturian-dialect, Galician-Asturian, the Aranes, and Aragonese- for this reason
it is absolutely correct to say that Asturian is as much a language as Euskera,
Galician or Catalonian.
Next,
the instrument of ratification declares that for the languages recognized as official in the respective Statutes
of Autonomy ( it has to be reminded that Aranes
passed onto this group with statute reform
of 2006) “ the dispositions which are now pointed out from part III of
the Charter will be applied”, 69 paragraphs and sections in total, while for
those languages that the Statutes of Autonomy protect and cover “ all those
dispositions from part III of the charter which may reasonably be applied will
be applied ”, 98 paragraphs and parts make
up the total .
For
what is seen and not seen in the fulfilment of the mandates of the Charter, the
Spanish public authorities interpret that for the official languages they have
to fulfil and recognise what is disposed in the 69 paragraphs and related
sections, while for the other languages (Asturian, Galician-Asturian and
Aragonese) there is no need to recognise or fulfil any of them in concrete,
without the prejudice of applying any of them, if it is the case
.
This
interpretation is absolutely contrary to what is established in the Preamble of
the Constitution and its articles 1.1,3.3 9.2, 10.2 and 14 because it leads to a
negative discriminatory protection, pretending to protect more so the protected
languages and less so the most unprotected. This interpretation, further more,
is completely opposed to the finality of the norm- of fundamental attention in
the interpretative process, according to the Civil Code- which is clearly the
contrary: to protect more the most unprotected and in danger of disappearing, as
it is manifested in its preamble and sections 1 and 2 of its article 7 . The
greater the abundance , such interpretation is completely opposed to the very
formal demands of the Charter, which in its article 2 gathers as a
commitment of the parties to “apply a minimum of thirty paragraphs or selected
sections amongst the dispositions of part III ».
As
a consequence , the interpretation of
The Instrument of Ratification by Spanish authorities of the European Charter
for Regional or Minority
languages made in accordance with the Constitution
and the contents of the very international Treaty leads to the commitment
of the Spanish State to apply for the most unprotected languages , which have
not yet been recognised as co-official in its respective statutes of autonomy,
the 69 paragraphs and sections related as applicable to the co-official
languages and, in addition , all the others that integrate part III of the
Charter and “which my reasonably be applied”, positive discrimination in
this case, completely in accordance with the constitution and the very Charter
in its article 7, last paragraph of part 2, declares that “ the
adoption of special measures in favour of regional
or minority languages, destined to promote an equality amongst speakers of such
languages and the rest of the population and oriented to taking into account
their peculiar situations , it will not be considered an act of discrimination
with speakers of more extensive languages».
And
the question is that, either the Instrument of Ratification is interpreted like
this by Spanish authorities of the European Charter for
Regional or Minority languages or we will be facing a law- of the largest
possible rank, according to what is established
in article 96 of the Constitution completely unconstitutional ”.