The co-official languages are spoken today in Congress for the first time in the history of democracy

The Congress of Deputies opens this Tuesday its first plenary session of the XV Legislature with the prominence of Catalan, Basque and Galician. The use of the co-official languages is a proposed reform of the Rules of Procedure of the President of Congress, Francina Armengol, which went ahead last September 13 with the opposition of the PP and will begin with provisional interpreters

For the first time in the history of democracy, it will be possible to listen to the interventions of the deputies in the plenary session of the Congress with simultaneous translation in Catalan, Basque and Galician. Half a dozen interpreters will be in charge of this. 350 headphones will be distributed and it will be possible to follow the speeches subtitled in Spanish on two giant screens located in the hemicycle. In addition to the co-official languages, other non-official languages such as Asturian or Aragonese may also be used.

In this way, the new president of the Congress, Francina Armengol, fulfills the commitment she made in the constitutive session of the Cortes to bring linguistic diversity to the plenary session of the Congress as soon as possible. This week will be finally approved the reform of the Rules of Procedure of the House to implement the use of the co-official languages in plenary sessions, committees, writings and in all parliamentary proceedings. A novelty that will cost around 280,000 euros per year.

The co-official languages are introduced in Congress

This is how the Bureau of Congress qualified last Wednesday, September 13, the proposal to amend the Rules of Procedure presented by PSOE, Sumar, ERC, PNV and BNG, with the PP voting against. According to this, the deputies who so wish can already express themselves today in Catalan, Galician and Basque in the debate of taking into consideration of this regulatory reform. This will be the only item on the agenda of the plenary session this Tuesday and also on September 21.

Likewise, for the investiture debate of the leader of the Partido Popular, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, which will take place on September 26 and 27, autonomous translators will be used, which in all likelihood will be those already used by the Senate.