Freiburg parliament keeps 10 percent threshold for bilingual status

Freiburg’s cantonal parliament has retained a 10 percent threshold for minorities seeking official bilingual status, Swiss broadcaster SRF reported. The provision is part of a new language law that would set out the conditions under which municipalities can officially declare themselves bilingual.

The law would apply to municipalities on the language border where the minority language has been established for at least 50 years and has represented at least 10 percent of the population for the past 25 years. Residents would also have to approve the introduction of a second official language in a referendum.

The 10 percent threshold was the main point of contention during the debate. FDP parliamentary member Savio Michellod called it too low and proposed raising it to 20 percent. “Ten percent is not a significant minority, but merely a minority,” he said, arguing that municipalities already manage bilingualism pragmatically without such a law.

Bernhard Altermatt of the Centre party rejected that argument, saying that if a minority only became significant at 20 percent, Italian would not be considered significant in Switzerland either. Socialist parliamentary member Julia Senti warned that a 20 percent threshold would effectively block many municipalities from becoming bilingual and cause the law to lose its purpose.

State Councillor Didier Castella, an FDP member responsible for the legislation, said municipalities with a 10 percent minority would not automatically become bilingual. “The state does not want to impose anything on municipalities that does not fit their reality,” he said. The final decision would remain with voters in each municipality.

The parliament upheld the 10 percent rule by 68 votes to 30 in the bill’s first reading. The second reading has been postponed until October. If the law receives final approval, municipalities could hold referendums on introducing a second official language. The city of Freiburg has so far been the only municipality to send clear signals that it may do so, while others have remained cautious.

Freiburg is officially French-speaking

Although German and French are both widely used in the city, Freiburg is officially French-speaking. The new law could allow it to become officially bilingual.

The debate is rooted in a long-running dispute over language rights in the canton. The Deutschfreiburger Arbeitsgemeinschaft was founded in 1959 to campaign for more rights for the German-speaking minority. In 1985, the CRPF was established in opposition to what it described as the “Germanisation” of Freiburg, and the two organisations later engaged in heated conflict.

In 1990, the cantonal constitution gave German and French equal status as cantonal official languages and established the territorial principle for languages. The dispute briefly resurfaced in 2012, when the capital’s railway station signs changed from the French “Fribourg” to “Fribourg/Freiburg”. A proposed merger between the city and neighbouring municipalities failed in a consultative vote in 2021 after the CRPF raised concerns that it could introduce official bilingualism indirectly. The organisation criticised the city again after it adopted a bilingual logo last year.