Por Redaccion 
The President of the Academy of the Asturian Language, Xosé Antón González Riaño, made a special appeal to the PP of Asturias and its leader, Álvaro Queipo, on Friday in his speech on the Day of the Letters, to support the official status of the Asturian language because «as a fundamental force of the right, it cannot renounce being Asturian.»
«This appeal from our part has no previous suspicions or expiration date: it will be permanent until achieving equal linguistic rights enjoyed by, among others, autonomous communities like neighboring Galicia,» said Antón González Riaño.
Riaño considered the processing in the General Assembly of the proposal for the reform of the Statute of Autonomy to achieve the official status of Asturian and Eonaviego as a historical fact because it is the first time that official status is being discussed in the Asturian parliament.
He emphasized that the search for the necessary consensus to move it forward is something that concerns all parliamentary groups, both major and minor, «even though the responsibility lies much higher on the former.»
«We must not forget that in all bilingual communities in the state, co-official status has been achieved with the prior agreement of left-wing forces – mainly the PSOE of Felipe González – and right-wing forces – including the then People’s Alliance of Manuel Fraga. That is why we, as an Academy, make a special appeal to the PP of Asturias and its leader, Álvaro Queipo,» said the president of the Academy.
Álvaro Queipo was absent from this year’s XLVI Day of the Asturian Letters event. However, PP deputies Beatriz Polledo and Pilar Fernández Pardo did attend.
González Riaño pointed out that the failure to achieve official status in the current process of reforming the statute does not solve a problem but unnecessarily postpones the fulfillment of the constitutional solution envisaged which, whether desired or not, will be effective and irreversible in Asturias.
He urged the government forces, PSOE and IU-Convocatoria, to implement a proactive and urgent language policy while waiting for official status.
«The absence of official status should not be seen as a path to inaction or the implementation of a low-intensity language policy. That is, even though heavily influenced by the lack of official status, language policy can still be implemented in the current situation. Furthermore, sociological studies reflect a repeated demand for such policies, particularly in the social, educational, and media sectors,» he stated.
During his speech, Xosé Antón González Riaño reviewed the work carried out by the Academy over the past year and celebrated the addition of three new academics: Paquita Suárez Coalla, Alberto Fernández Costar, and Ruth González Rodríguez.
Several government members were present at the event, led by Vice President Gimena Llamedo; Education Minister Lydia Espina; Culture, Language Policy, and Sports Minister Vanessa Gutiérrez; and Territorial Planning Minister Ovidio Zapico.
FUENTE