The protection of the Spanish language in the framework of the regional parliaments: the access in Spanish to the public information on their official websites

Abstract

Abstract:
The Spanish Constitution establishes in the article 3 that the Spanish is the official language of the State. It also enshrines the existence of mutilinguism in the country. However, there are some territories where citizens face inequalities when using Spanish as their mother tongue. This situation is even harder if the inequalities come from public powers. The article focuses on the citizens’ access to public information in Spanish. In fact, not only the Spanish is the official language (art. 3 CE), but also the article 9 of the Constitution forces the public authorities to publish laws (which means also to publish them in Spanish), as well as the Act of Transparency, Access to Public Information and Good Government (Ley 19/2013) enables citizens to get access to public information (which means to access to the documents also in Spanish). Hence, the article
analyses the level of public access in Spanish to the documents uploaded on the websites of the regional parliaments. Therefore, it is a case study focused on the six regional parliaments with more than one official language. They are the following ones: 1) The Basque Parliament (Eusko Legebiltzarra); 2) the Parliament of Navarra (Nafarroako Parlamentua); 3) the Parliament of Catalonia (Parlament de Catalunya); 4) the Valencian Parliament (Corts Valencianes); 5) the Parliament of the Balearic Islands (Parlament de les Illes Balears); and 6) the Galician Parliament (Parlamento de Galicia). It will study the level of compliance with the article 3 and 9 of the Constitution and the article 12 of the Act of Transparency, Access to Public Information and Good Government (Ley 19/2013). The aim of the article is to get to conclusions that enable the legislator to strengthen and force the compliance with the constitutional mandate, as well as to empower citizens to use the official language.