Now the act will go to the Senate, and then, if approved, to President Andrzej Duda.
If signed by president Duda, the act will see
Silesian become Poland’s second legitimate
regional language, next to Kashubian, and will open the way to introducing the language into school language classes.
The act will also make it possible to introduce bilingual name boards in towns where over 20% of the inhabitants speak Silesian.
During its second reading on Wednesday, Monika Rosa from the
Civic Coalition party (KO) said: "The adoption of the act (...) will implement wise programs that will protect the
Silesian language from extinction and will help to ward off the threats posed to our language by time, politics, and globalization.
“Changing the act is supposedly only a matter of adding a dozen or so letters and two words, ‘silesian language’, but it is actually a change in the thinking and functioning of the state.”
“These words include an understanding of the relationship between the state and minorities, i.e., less fear and more openness.
“The actions of Polish citizens for their own culture will simply become more beautiful."
The bill, which was submitted on January 25 by a group of KO MPs, was the eighth parliamentary attempt to recognize Silesian as a regional language and Silesians as an
ethnic minority.
It is currently being opposed by the
far-right Confederation party (Konfederacja) who claims that Silesian is not a language but a dialect, and passing the bill could lead to the disintegration of the Polish state.
During the 2021 census, 596,224 people declared Silesian nationality, with 467,145 confirming they spoke Silesian at home.
