The Aragonese Parliament has started discussing the draft of the Languages Act, which is aimed at regulating the "use, protection and promotion" of the languages spoken in the autonomous community. The law has long been desired for by minoritised language communities. However, the draft PSOE has presented has been watered down. According to Vilaweb, Spanish will remain as the only official language of the administration, while Catalan and Aragonese will be voluntary only in municipalities where these languages have been traditionally spoken. Citizens will be able to address official public bodies in Catalan and Aragonese, but the official response will be in Spanish.

PSOE will have now to find backing from other parliamentary groups. As of today, the Aragonse Party (PAR), which is in a government coalition together with PSOE, is against the bill as it acknowledges Catalan as the language spoken in the Eastern strip of Aragon (known by Catalans as Western strip). PP (conservative Spanish nationalists) is also against the bill arguing that "the issue of protecting minority languages is not a concern for people". United Left (ex-communists) seems to be in favour of the proposal, and Chunta Aragonesista (CHA, leftist Aragonese nationalists) has not yet expressed its opinion.

Further information:

• Press clipping at La Franja
• Nationalia:The government of Aragon postpones again the Languages Act