Question 11552 — cultural heritage

Summary

Mr. Peio Dufau alerts the Minister of the Interior to the critical situation of the Basque language. Regional languages ​​constitute an essential element of France's heritage (art. 75-1 of the Constitution). Their preservation is a shared responsibility between the State and local authorities. The Basque language, spoken by approximately 20% of the population of the northern Basque Country, remains today in a critical situation because in below the threshold of 30% of speakers that UNESCO defines as essential for the survival of a language. Since the creation of the Public Office of the Basque Language (OPLB) in 2004 - a public interest group bringing together the State, the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department and the Basque Country urban community - a positive dynamic has been set in motion. Indeed, the draft language policy adopted at the unanimity of its members in 2006 aims to train complete bilingual speakers, namely, people with perfect command of the French and Basque languages. Sociolinguistic studies show that, for the first time, as the population increases, the loss of speakers is halted. Basque society also shows a strong demand for learning and using the language, in public life and the world. professional. A survey carried out by the IFOP in 2025 confirms this collective desire: the vast majority of inhabitants of the Basque Country (91%), but also a significant part of French public opinion (77%) are in favor of the “official recognition” of Basque. This societal expectation reinforces the legitimacy of an ambitious and concerted public policy. The parliamentary mission led by senators Max Brisson and Karine Daniel recalled the persistent fragility of regional languages ​​and the need for a reinforced financial commitment to guarantee the sustainability of these living heritages and access to their teaching. In order to take a new qualitative and quantitative step and achieve the objective of 30% Basque speakers by 2050, the OPLB and its members developed a detailed budget projection for 2023, amounting to 2.6 million euros. additional per year the minimum needs, i.e. 650,000 euros per member. However, despite this shared diagnosis, the State has only announced an increase of 100,000 euros in its contribution, not even covering inflation, well below real needs. This inability to respond to identified needs endangers the progress made over the past twenty years, weakens local actors and threatens the political and social consensus built around the linguistic revitalization. He asks the Minister of the Interior what means the Government intends to implement to strengthen the linguistic policy in favor of the Basque language. In particular, he would like the Minister to reinforce the financing share of the Ministry of the Interior in the budget of the Public Office of the Basque Language and to ask him for his position on this subject.

Machine translation from French. The official text remains authoritative.

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1. 9 December 2025

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• Peio Dufau · auteur

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