6 - The Basque Autonomous Community and Navarre: Enthusiastic Endorsement

Summary

In Chapter 6 the same approach to evidence gathering is adopted in the context of the Spanish polity by focussing on two of the 17 Autonomous Communities, namely the Basque Country and Navarre. It is here that the new speaker concept has been most readily welcomed and has entered into official discourse. Accordingly, we may expect to find examples of good practice which should be applicable in other jurisdictions. Detailed consideration is given to such excellent initiatives as the Euskaraldia: 11 Days in Euskera campaign in the Basque Autonomous Community. Here civil society activists and local agencies are far more inclined to argue that the needs of new speakers should be an integral element of official language policy than were those charged with the formulation and implementation of such policies at the national level. The chapter explores to what extent this official reticence is a result of ideological stances, a caution as to the costs involved or a conviction that current policies already cater very well for the needs of new speakers, even if they are not described in those terms.