L'impuls parlamentari de l'acció política i de govern pel que fa a la normalització lingüística durant les set darreres legislatures del Parlament de Catalunya (1980-2006)

Resum

This article aims to analyze the activity of the Parliament of Catalonia in driving forward the process of normalization of the Catalan language during the first seven legislative sessions of the Catalan Parliament after this institution was resuscitated in 1980. This paper reviews the ensemble of booster initiatives – motions and resolutions – having to do with the Catalan language passed by the Catalan Parliament from 1980 to the end of the seventh legislative session in 2006. In total, 26 years during which the Chamber has acted as an active, not passive, agent, of the language policy of the Catalan government. That has been reflected through parliamentary activity to move forward on the language question, which has entailed an increasing use, in two ways, of the instruments provided for this purpose in the Parliamentary Regulations. One has been quantitative, through a palpable increase in the number of motions and resolutions passed over these seven legislative periods to address various aspects connected with the Catalan language. The other has been qualitative, by dealing with issues of language normalization that have advanced in parallel with the formulation, implementation, restructuring and evaluation of the government’s language policy. In this context, parliamentary interest in language issues over seven legislative sessions has moved towards the implementation and development of a protective legal framework. This is because the precepts articulated in the Language Normalization and Language Policy Acts of 1983 and 1998, respectively, do not exhaust the possibilities of governmental action. This governmental action is complemented through the stimulation the Parliament brings to bear on the Executive branch. As is obvious, the need to achieve the normalization of a language such as Catalan is not satisfied by the mere passage of laws that set forth guidelines for development. The more than 100 motions and resolutions passed during the period under study bear witness to this development. Initially, the booster initiatives from the first legislative sessions contained guidelines or instructions having to do with actions typical of a preliminary stage of structuring the normalization. Later initiatives incorporated mandates and instructions aimed at pushing for more precise actions, in order to resolve more specific issues. In summary, this paper reflects the salient contributions of the Parliament to one of the most important political and social undertakings of Catalonia in recent years: the process of normalizing the Catalan language.