After more than 20 years of waiting, the Friborg government puts in consultation its bill on languages. The text must define which municipalities can claim the status of bilingual locality. Its detractors fear a Germanization of the canton.
Despite an inscription in the Constitution in 2004, no Friborg commune can today officially claim to be bilingual, due to the lack of sufficiently clear directive.
The Council of State wants to clarify the situation. It proposes to allow a municipality to become bilingual if 10% of its population speaks German or French and that the minority language is also spoken in a neighboring commune.
An “absurd” project
Opponents of the project denounce an artificial bilingualism, like Alexandre Papaux, former cantonal judge and vice-president of the French-speaking community in the country of Friborg, which “fears that the current reality of the municipalities is not respected”.
“Of 121 municipalities, 120 have a language-French and German-for ages, and it works,” he notes in the morning of RTS. “We can adapt, punctually translations or help people who are from another language in certain municipalities, but that has nothing to do with recognizing two official languages. It is totally absurd,” he adds.
Twelve municipalities concerned
The cantonal authorities are intended to be reassuring. “We have been discussing the law on languages in the canton of Friborg for 50 years. Society and mentalities have evolved: the German -speaking no longer scares as in the past and we see the wealth that bilingualism brings than danger,” said Didier Castella, State Councilor in charge of institutions.
In total, 12 of the 121 Friborg municipalities could choose to become officially bilingual. The project provides that they have the last word, the change in status to be validated by a popular vote.
Sujet Radio: Mehdi Piccand
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