"Rights don't have a price"

That's what various political parties in Spain are saying as they claim the right to speak in the official languages of their autonomous regions during plenary sessions in the Spanish Senate, reports ElMundo.es. Starting yesterday, senators from Catalunya, Valencia, the Basque Country, and Galicia will be able to use their respective regional languages while simultaneous translation is provided in Castilian by the way of earphones. From a rotation of twenty-five selected interpreters, seven at a time will be on duty: three for Catalan and Valencian, two for Galician, and two for Basque. This feat will cost the Spanish public 350,000 euros a year, with 12,000 euros allocated for each meeting, besides the 4,526.48 euros spent in translation equipment. The nationalistic parties feel that they have the right to express themselves in the official language of their choice, and that "rights don't have a price".

Among the parties against this new action is the Partido Popular who expressed that the senators would "make fools out of themselves on a global scale", since they all understand the official language of the State, Castilian.

Right now, the liberal use of the co-official Spanish languages is limited in the Senate, though the nationalistic parties plan to pursue an extension of this measure to other parts of the Senate, as well as in the lower house, the Congress of Deputies.

You can read the full report (in Spanish) on ElMundo.es.
Also from ElMundo.es, find out what the first day of this "multilingual era" was like for the Spanish Senators.