Empire Rising: Spain

Chapter 202: Chapter 150: One Nation, One People, One Language (2)

The Sun Newspaper’s report, under the influence of the Royal Family, was wildly shared and published by other news agencies, quickly sparking discussion among Spaniards through the Royal Family’s media empire.

For most Spaniards, this report had little impact. After all, they already considered themselves Spaniards and spoke Spanish.

But for Catalans and Basque, the impact was certainly there. Although Catalans also speak Spanish, under the influence of some ill-intentioned radical nationalists, many factories and news agencies in Catalonia Region are demanding that employees use Catalan to communicate, even news is being published in Catalan.

If the government were to truly decide to completely ban the use of other languages as stated in the report and only allow Spanish to be spoken in public places, those most affected would be these radical nationalists and their plans.

The report merely opened up discussions about national language and religious issues, but truly causing a stir was the action of Prime Minister Prim.

A few days after the report stirred up, under the command of Prime Minister Prim, a member from the Progressive Party submitted a proposal to the Spanish House of Representatives titled “Proposal for Comprehensive Unification of Nation, Religion, and Language”.

The proposal cited the benefits brought to Spain by the comprehensive unification of nation, religion, and language as reported by the Sun Newspaper, and asserted that only through such unification can Spain truly become a strong nation.

The proposal quickly sparked a heated debate in parliament. It’s no surprise it was so heated, given that the proposer was from the Progressive Party, right?

After all, Prime Minister Prim is from this party, so who would believe that the proposal was submitted without Prim’s authorization?

In fact, thinking further, this proposal might have been directly initiated by Prime Minister Prim, with the member merely submitting it on his behalf.

Despite there being many conservatives among parliament members, the overwhelming majority are Spaniards. Only a small number of Catalans and Basque are in parliament, and among them the highest positioned Catalan even seems to support the proposal for Spanish national unification by Prime Minister Prim.

For this reason, the parliamentary discussion proceeded quickly, even producing a fresh new bill, the “Spanish National Religious Language Law”, within just a few days.

The main content includes three points corresponding to the unification requirements for nation, religion, and language.

First, “Spanish Nation” is the legal designation for all Spanish citizens, with no modifications allowed. Spaniards are great and supreme, a symbol of glory and honor.

Anyone referring to Spanish citizens as another nationality is discriminating against them, violating the legal provisions regarding the concept of Spanish Nation in the “Spanish National Religious Language Law”, and will be subjected to imprisonment and fines.

Second, Catholicism is the national religion of Spain, but the Spanish Government also accepts all doctrines of Christianity.

Only Spanish citizens who believe in Christianity have the right to join all levels of government and parliament, the military, and other official departments (including state-owned and Royal Family enterprises).

Third, within Spain’s territory, in any public place, Spanish language and Spanish script must be used exclusively (such as schools, government, parliament, hospitals, and train stations).

Certain special places may use the languages of UK, France, Germany, Italy, and Russia discretionarily, but must report to the local government and not use them privately.

Spanish language must be used internally within government and Royal Family enterprises as the sole language, while private enterprises may use other languages but will not enjoy any tax reductions.

In other words, if private enterprises wish to receive government tax subsidies and reductions, they must require all internal employees to use Spanish for communication.

Of course, foreign experts are not included in this scope. This regulation primarily targets employees with Spanish nationality, mainly for the purpose of linguistic unification.

Although there isn’t a forceful mandate for private enterprises to use Spanish, those capitalists certainly will voluntarily ban the use of other languages internally for government tax reductions and subsidies.

Such voluntary actions by private entrepreneurs can also divert antagonism, as at least they bear part of the hatred, given the government did not impose enforcement; the respective language regulations are determined by the enterprises themselves.

In the end, this law mainly affects Catalans and Basque.

However, Spain’s history is long, and its history of unification has spanned hundreds of years. During such a lengthy period, although Spain hasn’t completely assimilated Catalonia and Basque areas, these regions have generally seen their populations widely using Spanish.

The recent resurgence of Catalan and Basque languages is merely the secret maneuvering of ill-intentioned radical nationalists.

Most of the populace does not reject using Spanish, much like they don’t reject considering themselves Spaniards.

Prime Minister Prim was born in Catalonia, and naturally understands the situation in Catalonia well. Unifying nation, religion, and language seems difficult, but it’s actually quite easy to achieve.