2019/02/05

Welsh party Plaid Cymru leader calls for Celtic political union

The leader of the Welsh national party Plaid Cymru said there needs to be much greater cooperation between the Celtic nations post-Brexit. Speaking in Dublin on January 10th, Adam Price proposed a Celtic Development Bank for joint infrastructure and investment projects in energy, transport and communications in Ireland, Wales, Scotland and the Isle of Man. Mr Price was guest speaker at the Institute of International and European Affairs, where he outlined the importance of developing the existing relationship between Ireland and Wales when Britain leaves the European Union.

As well as the development bank, he said he would also like to see the establishment of some kind of a Celtic political union. The structure of this union is already outlined and envisioned in the Good Friday Agreement, he said.The Plaid leader also said that Ireland and Wales could become political partners in a project to fundamentally restructure political relationships across western Europe. This is a great project for the 21st century, he said. He said that Brexit has shown that the British political system is broken and that the time has come to choose not only to remain in but reform, renew and regenerate Europe. Just over 52% of voters in Wales chose to leave the European Union in the 2016 referendum.
Ireland and Wales share a common Celtic linguistic heritage, which is under threat. According the latest figures, 3,000 Welsh speakers are being lost every year due to death and emigration and just over half of the population in the strongest Welsh-speaking areas are native speakers. espite an increase in pupils learning the language at school, the overall number of Welsh speakers is in decline. In Ireland, roughly 20,000 people speak Irish on a daily basis in the Gaeltacht.

 Speaking to RTÉ, Mr Price said that in order to preserve Welsh, the economic challenges of life in the western part of Wales must be tackled. He said that both Ireland and Wales could work together on the economic challenges facing their Celtic language communities. Plaid Cymru is in opposition in a Labour-led Welsh Assembly. The government's future proposals on the Welsh language were discussed at zssembly hearings today. Among the proposals is a recommendation that the role of the Welsh Language Commissioner be abolished, even though a new commissioner has only recently been appointed.

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2019/02/04

Süd-Tiroler Freiheit demands that the South Tyrol President should be directly elected by the people

Süd-Tiroler Freiheit voted against Arno Kompatscher as South Tyrol President on January 17th. STF demanded a "directly elect president". The MPs of the South Tyrolean Freedom party, Sven Knoll and Myriam Atz-Tammerle, defended that the president should be directly elected by the people. "The current regulation provides that the president is elected by the state parliament and thus on the basis of party political interests. This excludes voters from one of the most important decisions of the country. "The South Tyrolean freedom has therefore renewed its demand to amend the electoral law so that the governor can be elected directly by the people in the future.


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Mijá giella – Sámi Language Seminar

The Sámi Parliament in Sweden is pleased to invite you to Mijá giella – Sámi Language Seminar in Jåhkåmåhkke/Jokkmokk on February 07, 2019. The seminar is held at the Ája building during the traditional Jokkmokk winter market week.
The seminar offers lectures and a panel discussion on the revitalization of Sámi language and future language needs.
The seminar aims to draw attention to the UN International Year of Indigenous Languages in Sápmi. During the seminar we will hear proffesional voices about the situation of Sámi languages, how the Sámi languages ​​can be strengthened, transferred to coming generations and what linguistic needs exist for the future.
This is an open arrangement, no prior registration is needed.
The program you can find here (in Swedish): https://www.sametinget.se/
Link to Facebook-event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1990974011018938/

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2019/02/03

The mayors of Friuli ask Rai and Government more programs in Friulian language



The mayors of the Assembly of the Friulian linguistic Community requested to the Italian Government and the RAI:

- the immediate launch of the Friulian-language television broadcasts on the regional Rai through a specific provision in the next convention concerning the Friuli-Venezia Giulia Region (signed between the Prime Minister's Office and the RAI, to be signed, as a law, by April 2019),

- the allocation of funds necessary to guarantee television broadcasts, during the period 2019-2022, with a number of hours and resources no lower than those provided for the Slovenian language


Meeting in Udin
The mayors met on January 26th at the headquarters of the Region in Udin/Udine. «In the absence of actions, the legitimate interests of the citizens of the Friulian language will be asserted in the appropriate offices, even with the Judicial Authority», said the president of the Friulian Community of the Friulian Community, Diego Navarria, defending the legitimate interests of the Friulian-speaking citizens provided for by the law in force (including RAI service contract currently in force), which is clearly violated for what concerns television broadcasts and undersized for what concerns radio broadcasting ».





A demand previously requested
The non-fulfillment of the public radio and television service had already been denounced in a letter to the leaders of the RAI, signed on 23 October 2018 by 76 mayors belonging to the Friulian Language Community, who adhered to the motion approved unanimously by the Regional Council on 26 July 2018, on the need for an important commitment to strengthening and enhancing information and structures to protect regional linguistic minorities. The motion committed the Regional Council to implement the regulatory provisions related to the promotion of cultures and the protection of linguistic minorities in the region, and to enhance and enhance the editorial office of Udine and the correspondence site of Pordenone, in order to ensure radio broadcasts and television in the Friulian language for a time schedule at least equal to that recognized in the Slovenian language.

Only 90 hours/year in the radio
At the start of the autumn radio and television programming, there was an unchanged lack of content in the Friulian language and in the German language and a weakening of the regional news services dedicated to the news concerning the territories of Udine, Gorizia and Pordenone. Navarria recalled, during the press conference, how the Rai service contract in force (2018-2022) already foresees the obligation to "guarantee the production and distribution of radio and television broadcasts in the Friulian language", a provision currently breached.

Currently, only 90 hours of Friulan-language radio broadcasts per year are foreseen and no television broadcast (compared to 4,517 radio and 208 television programs in Slovenian, which can also count on its own dedicated site). There were 21 mayors or their delegates, as well as the regional councilors Diego Bernardis and Massimo Moretuzzo.

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Welsh Government and Plaid Cymru team up to demand second referendum preparations begin

The Welsh Government and Plaid Cymru have teamed up to demand preparations for a second referendum begin "immediately".
MPs voted by a margin of 317 to 301 to demand the controversial Irish backstop is replaced with "alternative arrangements", and Theresa May has said she will ask Europe to re-open negotiations.
But the European Union has made it clear it will not renegotiate the withdrawal agreement, meaning the chance of a no-deal Brexit remains on the table. This is despite MPs also backing a non-binding motion calling for leaving the European Union without a deal to be ruled out last night.
And now the Welsh Government and Plaid Cymru have teamed up to call for work to begin "immediately" on preparations for a second referendum.
Although the motion stops short of explicitly calling for a so-called 'people's vote', this is the closest the Welsh Government has come to overtly supporting the campaign for a fresh vote on the UK's membership of the European Union.

The motion also calls for Article 50 to be delayed and for the UK Government to "step up its engagement" with the Welsh Government and other devolved administrations.

The motion approved on January 30th in the Assembly this afternoon reads as follows:
To propose that the National Assembly for Wales:
  1. Condemns the UK Government for its failure to engage in meaningful negotiations on the EU withdrawal deal on a cross-party basis and in terms of genuine engagement with the devolved institutions.
  2. Reiterates its view that a no deal outcome would be catastrophic for Wales and believes that the UK Government and UK Parliament must do everything in their power to prevent no deal, including requesting an extension of the Article 50 deadline.
  3. Believes if, as it now seems, the UK Parliament cannot unite around an alternative proposition which includes participation in the single market and a customs union then the only option which remains is to give the decision back to the people; and believes that work should begin immediately on preparing for a public vote.
  4. Believes the UK Parliament should, with immediate effect, step up its engagement with the devolved legislatures on these issues.

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2019/02/02

Rally in Toulouse against Occitan lessons in public schools being closed down



Last January 30th on Tolosa, 150 Occitan people demonstrated in the Rectorate against the destruction of teaching of the Occitan language. The French Rectorate will end the financing of the Occitan language in the secundary school as the Centre Regional dels Ensenhaires d’Occitan de l’acadèmia de Tolosa (CRÈO Tolosa) dennounced. Nowadays 15,000 students learn Occitan between 1 and 3 hours per week. The Institute of Occitan Studies has sent a letter to the French government against the measure.

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Sweden receives 3 new Sami language and administration municipalities

Yesterday, Sweden received three new Sami administration municipalities - one of which is Stockholm. From February 1, both Sami and tower settlements will receive stronger language rights in Sweden's capital. Stockholm, together with Vindeln / Vyöddale and Örnsköldsvik / Orrestaare, are the three new municipalities that today formally connect to the Sami administrative area.

The Sami association has been working for too long so it is satisfactory. This will mean greater opportunities for Sami pre-school and elderly care. 25 municipalities and a handful of regions are now included in the Sami administrative area. This means, among other things, that it must be possible to communicate in Sami with the affiliated municipalities - in addition, the municipalities are obliged to arrange, on request, both preschool and elderly care.

For this, the municipalities receive a state grant which is partly based on the number of inhabitants. As of February 1st, 66 municipalities in the Finnish administrative area, 25 municipalities in the Sami and eight municipalities are included in the administrative area for Meänkieli.

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A new Wales party for Socialism and independence

Undob, meaning Unity in Welsh, was launched on January 26th in Aberystwyth. The party's basis are socialism and independence and to push the anti-capitalist perspective. In fact it questions that "instead of asking why Independence for Wales ? we should be asking... Why not? Independence for Wales would strengthen working class solidarity across the British Isles - we have resources England doesn't have".  Ceri Cunningham spoke about work in Blaenau Ffestiniog bringing socialism to the community. Groupworks debated about what particular themes to campaign on, and how?

Undod Launch - Interview with Mabli Jones and Dan Evans from Undob




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2019/02/01

Dries Van Langenhove will lead Vlaams Belang list


The leader of the group "Schild & Vrienden" will head the list for the Vlaams Belang in Flemish Brabant in May. This young law student of 25 years who dreams of a return to a traditional society will be the head of the list for federal elections in Flemish Brabant. its identity group. Dries Van Langenhove was co-organizer of the protest against the UN's pact for migration in Brussels and the March for Democracy in Ninove against the new majority.

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17th Frisian radio advertising award by the Council of the Frisian Movement


On Thursday 17th January the 17th Frisian radio advertising award (Fryske radio-Reklamepriis, FRP) by the Council of the Frisian Movement (Ried fan de Fryske Beweging) was given to GGD (Gemeentelijke Gezondheidsdienst) Fryslân. 'Suitable reading' and the spot 'Discover new things in the bedroom?', got the radio campaign spot by 57% of all public votes.

The GGD Fryslân Manager GGD Frans Haenen received the famous Great Pier sculpture, the ear certificate and a check with a value of € 250, The FRP Commission referred to a statement by Nelson Mandela (1918-2013); "If you talk to a man in a language he understands, it goes into his head. If you talk to yourself in his own language, it goes in his heart!".

The Frisian Advertising Award was created to promote the use of the Frisian language in advertising publications. The FRP is an initiative of the Council of the Frisian Movement/Ried fan de Fryske Beweging. On March 14, 1995, the first FRP was awarded and was then only for radio advertising.

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