Out of the 427 representatives present, 236 voted in favor of the draft, 186 opposed it, and five abstained. The majority of the members of the main opposition party, Law and Justice (PiS), Kukiz’15 and the Confederation, as well as an independent representative, opposed the adoption of the draft.
According to the legislation now before the Senate, the traditional language of the Silesian region in the southwestern part of Poland would be included as a regional language in the law on national minorities.
Until now, only the Kashubian language, spread along the Baltic Sea, enjoyed such a status in Poland.
Following the amendment dual place and street names would be used in places where at least 20 percent of the population declares that they speak Silesianvoluntary school language education would be introduced, and initiatives aimed at nurturing the regional language would be financed.
During the parliamentary debate, PiS representatives argued that Silesian is not a language, but a dialect, and that changing its status is politically motivated.
The draft was presented by representatives of the faction leading the government coalition, the Civic Coalition, at the beginning of the year. A total of eight similar proposals have come to light since 2007, none of which was approved by the Sejm or put on the agenda, among other reasons, due to the end of the given parliamentary term.
In the 2021 census, more than 467,000 people in Poland indicated that they use Silesian in their everyday lives, and almost 55,000 of them claimed to speak only this language.
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Tags: language recognized Poland
