Senate makes its debut as a polyglot chamber but with a few conditions

There was more expectation on Tuesday as to how the senator from Catalonia was going to say it, rather than what he was actually going to say.

Socialist Senator Ramón Aleu was the first lawmaker to address the upper chamber in his native Catalan language. For the first time, the Senate allowed its members to take part in debates speaking in their regional languages - a practice that has been used since 2005 in the autonomous regions committee.

Aleu, a member of the Entesa Catalana de Progrés (ECP) parliamentary group, made Senate history with his defense of a motion in his regional language. What was novel about this event was watching many of his fellow senators put on their headphones so they could hear the translation.

Multi-language parliamentary sessions are common in other countries, such as Canada and Belgium. And since 1994 in Spain, written inter-parliamentary communication among senators, such as motions, memos and orders, can be drafted in the native languages of the regions.

But last year, on an ECP initiative, it was agreed that senate debates could also be conducted by members using Catalan, Valencian, Galician and Basque languages. But there are some conditions, which the Socialist Party laid down: senators can only use their native language when debating motions but not when it comes to addressing bills and, above all, not when it comes to the question-and-answer sessions with government officials. So there will never be a photo opportunity of Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero or any of his ministers wearing headphones.

From the start, when it was introduced and discussed last April, the Popular Party had been in complete disagreement with the idea. PP senators only spoke in Spanish during Tuesday's session.

Simultaneous translations are given from the regional language to Spanish but not vice versa. Seven interpreters have been hired at a cost of ¤250,000, in addition to the ¤150,000 that the autonomous regions committee translations cost.

Those who defend a polyglot chamber maintain that the Senate is the nation's "territorial chamber," and for that reason it is necessary that it reflects "the richness of Spanish linguistics."

"Plurality should be the norm," said Socialist Senator Carmela Silva, adding that it should be limited to debates on motions.

Those who frown on the multi-language issue say that the Senate is not an autonomous territorial chamber.

"This is a national institution that represents the sovereignty of all Spanish people, as the Constitution states," argued PP Senator Rosa Vindel. "For that reason, only one common language should be used."