2022/05/12

Thousands rally for Asturian language official status

 





The Xunta pola Defensa de la Llingua Asturiana (XDLA) brought together thousands of people on May 7 to claim the official status of the Asturian language. After the demonstration that left the Renfe station at 12 noon, a manifesto was read in the Plaza de la Escandalera in which they denounced that "they are taking steps backwards in normalization, losing spaces for the use of Asturian that already they seemed fixed and recognized by the whole community.” The singer Alicia Villanueva, the writer and musician Xaime Martínez, the philologist María Abril and the translator Miguel Sánchez have been in charge of reading the manifesto in which they have highlighted as an example of those "steps backwards" that "last week the rector of the University of Oviedo announced that they were going to stop using Asturian institutionally, contravening the autonomy statute and the university's own statutes».

“And, what is more serious, with the silence or complicity of the Government. Steps back and lost trains, such as the presence of Asturian on the audiovisual content platforms that other State languages ​​will have as of today due to the fact that they are co-official in their autonomous communities. Or that not even in the TPA can we see series and movies in Asturian and the girls and boys who have cartoons in our language, ”they added.

They have also referred to "unfair and discriminatory situations", such as those suffered by teachers of Asturian Language and Galician-Asturian who see years go by without their teaching specialty being recognized and without being able to access the public function like the rest of the teaching staff. "And President Barbón himself recognizes that the problem is due to the lack of officiality", lament from the Xunta that they have also harshly criticized the positions of the "extreme right and extreme right that do not miss the opportunity to dirty public opinion , enjoying tribunes and day and another in the media to spread their hatred and prejudice, on social networks, in educational centers ».

In the manifesto they have blamed the autonomous government and the PSOE for not opening the debate on official status in Parliament, which is "where it has to be opened".« The groups in favor of official status have told us that no an agreement, that there have been intransigence on one side or unacceptable demands on the other, or a lack of momentum or negotiating capacity on all sides, but the truth is that the debate has not been opened where it has to be opened: in the plenary session of the General Meeting. And that is the responsibility of the Government, the Government of the PSOE, which is the only body that right now has the capacity to promote a reform of the statute of autonomy", they highlighted. In this sense, they have wondered what would happen if the PSOE had fulfilled its electoral program of 2019 and have recalled that the greatest demonstrations of the vitality and strength of the movement have been seen since the possibility of achieving a historic advance for the languages ​​of Asturias was opened. “Today we are here again with the certainty that reason is on our side. There has been a pandemic, it is true; there is still and there is also a war. We know that there are priorities that must be addressed first, but we cannot swallow that recognition of the languages ​​and linguistic rights of Asturian men and women always remains for the last, ”they read in the manifesto.

The movement in defense of the Asturian language wanted to make it clear this Saturday that "as long as the debate is opened in conditions, the conflict will continue to be falsely closed." “Immediately it seems that the political forces have already assumed that there will be no officialdom today, some already giving themselves over to electoral calculations above the obligations they owe to the electorate. Maybe yes, maybe the officialdom will have to wait a little longer, but it will surely come, because the future for the Asturian and for the Galician-Asturian will only be possible with officialdom and because it is the will of a people. There have never been so many political groups in favor in the General Meeting, so the conditions are there and they have to be taken advantage of”, they concluded.

The Academy of the Asturian Language (ALLA) celebrated this Friday the 43rd Day of Asturian Lletres with an institutional act held in Oviedo in which Lisardo Lombardía and Naciu Galán have joined as new academic members, and in which it has influenced in the need to broaden the support of the social base to claim the official status of the Asturian and the eo-navigo.

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