Today there was a massive protest in the streets of Uviéu, capital of Asturias, in favor of the officialisation of two Spanish languages: Asturian and Galician-Asturian

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  1. The Principality of Asturias is an autonomous community of around a million people in the northwest of Spain.

    The only official language is currently Spanish, but two languages are spoken there and were spoken there before Spanish came into the scene: Asturian and Galician-Asturian (also known as Galician from Asturias). These languages are not official, although they have some limited legal protections and promotion such as being an optative subject in schools. The Asturian and Galician-Asturian languages are classified as endangered by UNESCO.

    In 2021, due to a shift in the political winds within Asturias, for the first time in 40 years since Spain transitioned from a dictatorship into a democracy, the majority of the Asturian left wing and centrist parties have fallen into line behind the officialisation drive, and they are one vote away from being able to change the Statute of Autonomy of Asturias (the ‘constitution’ of Asturias) in order to officialise these two languages. That vote is in the hands of deputy Adrián Pumares, who is from the centre-right wing Foro Asturias party, and he has already said that he is open to voting for it: reason for which he has been subject to harrassment from the Asturian right and far-right in favour of maintaining Spanish language supremacy.

    Today around 30,000 people filled the streets of Uviéu demanding that this protest, held annually, be the final one, and next year there won’t be a need to protest because Spain will have two more official languages. This automatically makes it one of the biggest if not the biggest protest for the languages in Asturian history. The protest was accompanied by representatives of all political parties in favour, as well as syndicates and workers unions.

    More information in this article translated via DeepL from the RTPA, the official media of the Principality of Asturias:

    >In the midst of negotiations on the reform of the Statute of Autonomy and the possibility of including it as an official language.
    Thousands of people -more than 30,000 according to the organisers- have demonstrated today in the centre of Oviedo / Uviéu to demand the official status of Asturian, a demonstration that has been carried out for 34 years by the Xunta pola Defensa de la Llingua Asturiana and which on this occasion is being held in the midst of the negotiations between the autonomous government and the parliamentary forces to agree on a statutory reform that includes this issue.

    >The PSOE pledged to promote the co-official status of Asturian at its last congress, a measure that also has the support of Podemos and IU, and the frontal opposition of the PP, Ciudadanos and Vox, while Foro, which holds the key to the approval of this statutory reform, has not yet clarified what its final position will be, although one of its two deputies, Adrián Pumares, has already said that he is in favour of an official status based on voluntariness and not on imposition.

    >After several weeks in which Adrián Barbón’s government has held meetings with different parliamentary forces to reach an agreement that would allow Asturianu and Asturianu-Galician to be recognised as official languages alongside Castilian, the possibility of reaching an agreement before the end of the current legislature has surrounded this mobilisation, which many hope will be the last.

    >According to the Xunta’s spokesman, Xosé Candel, over three decades more than 40 demonstrations have been held to demand that successive governments put an end to the injustice suffered by Asturian speakers.

    >Although he acknowledged that this is still an election promise and that the negotiation of the reform of the Statute of Autonomy is two years behind schedule, Candel assured that today’s demonstration must be seen by Adrián Barbón’s government as support for his proposal for official status, but also as a warning that not just any recognition is enough.

    >For the Xunta, regardless of the final wording, the article that declares official status must include four essential aspects: that Asturianu and Galician-Asturian be recognised alongside Castilian, that the right to know and use these languages be guaranteed, that it include the commitment that the terms and areas of their official use will be established by law, and that no person can be discriminated against on the basis of the language they use.

    >”We will not renounce a full-fledged officialdom. We do not want a shortened officialdom”, said Candel, who warned that this would require its implementation at all stages of the education system.

    >Among those attending the demonstration and representing the Asturian government at the march was the Regional Minister of Culture, Berta Piñán, who stressed the need to reach a consensus on officialdom “that emphasises rights and not obligations”.

    >In any case, she assured that the model of officialdom to be implemented in Asturias will be the one that the citizens want, through their representatives in the Junta General, who see “viable” the consensus to reach that officialdom and, therefore, that she hopes that today’s mobilisation will be the last one in which officialdom is demanded.

    >”It is a historic moment”, he said moments before the march began after midday, with the sound of bagpipe bands in the background and in a festive atmosphere, from the Asturian capital’s railway station and ended in the cathedral square with the reading of a manifesto.

    >Currently, 26 of the 45 deputies support the official status of the Asturian language, with the votes of PSOE, Podemos IU -one less than necessary- while 17 deputies from PP, Ciudadanos and Vox reject this reform.

    >The position of Foro is divided with each of its deputies belonging to the two currents into which the party has been divided, one of them in favour of rejecting officialdom, as established in the programme with which they contested the elections, and the other, Adrián Pumares, open to recognising officialdom based on voluntariness and whose vote is necessary for the reform of the Statute of Autonomy to be approved.

    >”There is a sufficient majority in the General Assembly. The time has finally come”, the Xunta maintains in a manifesto in which it has also given its support to Pumares, due to the campaign of harassment he has suffered in recent days by groups opposed to officialdom and Vox.

  3. I’m sorry but this is too biased. I understand people there in Asturias want to protect they very very old language. But…

    Making it an official language in practice means fewer and fewer people would like to work and live there as only a tiny part or Asturians knows Bable. (Note that in the long long text it is not visible t all).

    I see this as an opportunity for independent movements to take a bigger piece of the cake.

    Asturias has a long tradition of friendly people and this as from my point of view is only a matter of politics. Not a people need.

    Anyway I’m happy to see people caring about a local language that must be protected. Nevertheless make it an official language doesn’t help people by any means.

  7. 4 mongolos pa vivir del cuento. Todo con cargo al presupuesto. No es suficiente con que el 30% de los empleados en Asturias sean trabajadores públicos. Hacen falta más para poder dar salida laboral a los chavales que estudian filología asturianina. Pa mearse. Uvieu…. Es que me descojono.
    PD. De Belmonte de toda la vida y aquí se habló siempre diferente a lo de oriente. Pero bueno, babayadas…

  8. It’s interesting that it’s only now that support for Asturianu has become widespread in the regional parliament – the left has traditionally dominated there, and those parties have generally supported Basque and Catalan language rights in previous decades, so why was the situation different in Asturias?

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