<h6><strong>Eduardo González</strong></h6> <h4><strong>The spokesperson for the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) in Congress, Gabriel Rufián, questioned this Wednesday the "influence" of Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares in Europe, one day after the EU General Affairs Council once again shelved any decision on the official status of Catalan, Basque, and Galician. In his response, the head of diplomacy insisted that this objective remains "an irrevocable and irreversible commitment."</strong></h4> "What are you doing? What influence do you have in Europe?" Rufián asked during his speech in the House of Representatives' control session. "Minister Albares has the same weight as I do in Europe, very little, but he is the Foreign Minister, I am not; I am the spokesperson for the Republican Left," he previously told reporters in the corridors of Congress. According to Rufián, the Spanish right is the one that has "blown up" the agreement and, therefore, described it as "quite sad" that there are "Spanish" parties (PP and Vox) that oppose the co-official languages and, therefore, "their culture." However, he warned that the greatest responsibility lies with the PSOE, which has been unable to convince its European partners. "When the PSOE fails to comply, the blame lies with the PSOE, no one else," he warned. The ERC spokesperson also pointed out that Catalan has more speakers than Maltese, Latvian, Estonian, Danish, or Swedish. "If Catalan is spoken by ten million Europeans, why can't it be recognized?" he asked. In his response, Albares insisted that the officialization of the three languages in the European institutions remains "an irrevocable commitment" of the Government. He asserted that the path to making this commitment a reality is "irreversible." He warned Rufián that "sowing doubts about it is not helpful." According to the minister, this is not a "temporary" commitment of a government or a political party, but rather affects "how we Spaniards perceive ourselves, how we project ourselves, and, above all, how we live together; this is an issue of Spanish national identity, which is multilingual." "Spain stands in solidarity with the national identity of the rest of the European Member States; they must also stand in solidarity with us," he insisted. “Spain has been a member state of the European Union for 40 years, and the possibility of these languages becoming official was first presented 20 years ago,” Albares stated, “and since then, much progress has been made.” Therefore, the minister asked the People’s Party to convey this request to its partners in the European Parliament, “especially” to the parties “currently in European governments.” “Mr. Feijóo, turning our backs on Catalan, Basque, and Galician is turning our backs on 20 million Spaniards. I hope you understand that Galician is used officially in Europe and not just in the villages of Galicia to solicit votes,” he stated, addressing the leader of the Popular Party and former president of the Xunta de Galicia, Alberto Núñez Feijóo.
