- A group of fathers and mothers and Euskaltzales have brought to the Basque Parliament the request that the Disney + platform be in Basque. Regarding the contents of digital platforms, they point out that the Basque country is about to disappear and propose different solutions.
Last December a group of parents and Euskaltzales launched a collection of online signatures on the Disney + Streaming platform for the platform to be in Euskera. In two months more than 5,500 signatures have been collected and this Wednesday the petition has been sent to the Basque Parliament: "Let's not lose this train forever, so we can solve the problem," he added.
Three different avenues have been proposed. The first is that the Basque institutions get in touch with Disney, explaining their social demand to reach an agreement. The agreement was initialled in 2013 by the Catalans through a collection of signatures and now the releases are also offered in Catalan.
The second way is to regulate the rights of vasco-speakers by law. "If we are a million vasco-speakers and our equals, such as Icelandic or Estonian, already have their rights recognized. In particular, the linguistic rights of children must be guaranteed".
The third route is related to the new general audiovisual law being processed in Madrid: "The directive says that 30% of digital platforms should be destined for European projects in European states. The draft Spanish law states that 15% must be allocated to state productions. It is up to us to ensure that the Basque people are involved. Let half be in Spanish and the other half in Basque, Catalan or Galician".
The Basque has been completely diluted
The Euskaltzale group explained that 47% of Basques consume digital platforms and that Basque citizenship does so. But he adds that there are very few contents in Basque: 0.03% of Netflix content is in Basque, 0.005% on Amazon and at HBO and Disney + there is nothing.
In the 1980s and 1990s, the audiovisual offer was limited and the Basque drawings offered in ETB1 were relevant to children: ‘Arturo Erregea’, ‘Dragoi Bola’, ‘Doraemon’… Today, however, there are many options and ‘the Basque language has been completely diluted, almost to the point of disappearance’.
They stress the seriousness of the situation, as leisure is very important for the construction of children's linguistic habits. This campaign is an indicator of a wider need and faces the challenge of responding to a future in Basque, i.e. in cinemas, in the dubbing industry and in all areas of leisure.