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Turin 25/3/02 , by Marco Stolfo

'This proposal is really dangerous for minority languages in Italy', says Felice Besostri, former Member of the Senate and rapporteur on the Italian Law n° 482/99, which protects the historical linguistic minorities. Besostri isn’t in doubt on what could be the consequences if the Italian Parliament will accept to add to article 12 of the Constitution that ‘Italian is the official language of the State’.

Last weekend Besostri was in Lanzo Torinese, an Italian town situated in the Franco-Provençal area of Piedmont. He participated in the international meeting 'Linguistic Minorities: Perspectives about the Feasibility of a Law', organized by the Provincial Administration of Turin and dedicated to dicussing the implementation of Law n° 482/99.

Article 1 of Law n° 482/99 states that Italian is the official language of the State. This is the same phrase, which is currently being proposed to add to article 12 of the Constitution. Besostri told Eurolang that 'a Law is a Law and the Constitution is the Constitution. When we were working on the text which became Law n° 482/99, we had to add this phrase to it. The law was the result of an amendment of the opposition, expressing fear of supposed strong separatist tensions connected to the recognition of historical linguistic minorities. It was sort of a compromise we had to accept for approving this Law which is very important for the minorities in Italy'.

'In the case of this proposal to reform article 12 of the Constitution, there is a convergence between the supporters of the unity of the Italian State against Europe or in favour of Europe, and the supporters of the Italian language against English and against minority languages. This eventual constitutional change is a strong threat to linguistic pluralism and it wouldn’t benefit anything'.

Valter Giuliano, the Councillor for Culture of the Province of Turin, who promoted the meeting in Lanzo Torinese, seemed to be less troubled by this eventuality. 'I think that article 6 of the Constitution, stating 'the Republic protects linguistic minorities with special Laws', can secure minority languages anyway', he said.

The weekend meeting focused on what universities and local institutions can do to protect and promote minority languages. Therefore the specific subject of the proposal of Italian as official language of the state, didn’t emerge during the discussions. Not even after the report of Jeanine Elisa Médélice (Stendhal University, Grenoble) who spoke about the bad situation of minority languages in France, whose Constitution contains an article stating that French is the only official language of the state.

The meeting consisted of speeches and debates on research, didactics and experimental projects, and two final documents were written: one about the role of universities, and the second referring to the implementation of Law 482/99 in the media. The Law provides specific obligations and tasks for the public broadcaster (Rai).

'In organising meetings like this – Giuliano explained – our aim is to create a confrontation between different experiences in these fields. In our territory, which is inhabited by communities whose mother languages are Franco-Provençal, Occitan and French, institutions and associations need to know what happens in other minority language areas, in order to compare situations, problems and solutions for recognizing, choosing and doing the best for our realities'. (EL)