Use of Catalan in Congress one step closer to approval after parties put forth bill

The use of Catalan and other co-official minority languages in Spain's Congress is one step closer to approval after the left-wing Socialist-Sumar bloc put forth a bill on Wednesday alongside Basque, Catalan, and Galician parties. 

The bill will likely be passed on September 19, a week before the conservatives' Alberto Núñez Feijóo faces an investiture vote as he attempts to become Spain's next prime minister. 

Although kingmaker Junts per Catalunya took part in discussions regarding the content of the bill, the only Catalan pro-independence party to sign it was Esquerra Republicana.  

Carles Puigdemont's party, however, is expected to help approve it in time for the upcoming debate on a potential - and yet still unlikely as it does not have majority support - right-wing People's Party government on September 26 and 27. 

The reform will allow MPs to speak in not only Spanish, but also Catalan, Basque, Galician, and other protected languages such as Aranese, Aragonese, or Asturian. 

This comes weeks after pro-independence Junts and Esquerra agreed to make Socialist MP Francina Armengol the congressional speaker in exchange for being able to speak Catalan in the chamber.