Vol.:(0123456789) Language Policy https://doi.org/10.1007/s10993-019-09534-z 1 3 ORIGINAL PAPER Conficting discourses on language rights in the Basque Autonomous Community Jone Goirigolzarri Garaizar 1  · Xabier Landabidea Urresti 1 Received: 21 May 2018 / Accepted: 24 August 2019 © Springer Nature B.V. 2019 Abstract The handling of linguistic diversity in the Basque Autonomous Community has been an area of constant political debate since the establishment of the Basque–Spanish co-ofcial linguistic regime and the introduction of a process to revitalize Euskara (the Basque language) in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Much of that debate has materialized in claims related to the language rights of citizens. This paper ana- lyzes discourses about language rights in three political organizations, the Basque Nationalist Party (EAJ-PNV), the Abertzale Left (Ezker Abertzalea), and the Popu- lar Party (PP), through an analysis of their electoral programs for the Basque Parlia- ment from the frst elections to the present day (1980–2016). Although the linguistic system of the Basque Autonomous Community seems consolidated, the analysis has shown that policy proposals are profoundly conditioned by the form of understand- ing language rights and that these in turn are infuenced by distinct national projects. EAJ-PNV advocates for an efective equal opportunity to choose between Spanish and Basque in all spheres of use, motivated by its ethnocultural conception of the Basque Nation. The Ezker Abertzalea demands the right to live in Basque through- out the Basque Country with Basque as the common language of its plurilingual state project. The PP focuses on the negative side of language rights based on the common language status of Spanish and the right of citizens to remain monolingual in Spanish. Keywords Language rights · Language policies · Revitalization process of Basque · Basque Autonomous Community * Jone Goirigolzarri Garaizar jone.goirigolzarri@deusto.es Xabier Landabidea Urresti xlandabidea@deusto.es 1 University of Deusto, Unibertsitateen Etorbidea, 24, 48007 Bilbao, Basque Country, Spain