Socialist councilors at the Spanish town of Albanchez de Mágina decoupled the town’s annual celebrations from their Patron saint’s festivities in what politicians and the town’s residents are denouncing as an attack against their Christian faith.
For over four centuries, Albanchez de Mágina, a small agricultural town with roughly 900 residents located in the province of Jaén, Andalusia, holds an annual series of Catholic festivities and events between May 3-6 to honor their Patron, Saint Francis of Paola. Every May 3, the town holds a night-time Procession of the Rosary of the Torches — which precedes the festivities’ main event. On May 4, the town holds a solemn procession to honor Saint Francis of Paola. Due to its historic significance, the town observes May 4 as a local holiday.
The traditional festivities, whose early May schedule remained invariable through time, were modified this week by an absolute majority of local councilors from the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE). Effective 2027, the modifications brought forward the historically observed May 4 holiday to April 30, separating the holiday from the broader Saint Francis of Paola early May festivities.
The Spanish center-right People’s Party (PP) denounced on Wednesday that the PSOE councilors’s actions “effectively eliminated” the Patron Saint Festivities of Saint Francis of Paola. PP’s local spokesperson, Mario León, condemned PSOE’s decision as a “unilateral, authoritarian, and without consensus,” affirming that the socialists’ plan has the intention of “decoupling the festivities from the Christian faith and inventing a secular holiday weekend.”
According to the PP party, the change, which León pointed out has been in the works since 2025, was not consulted to the town’s opposition councillors or even the Brotherhood of Saint Francis of Paola. León stressed that neither the party’s local members nor the town’s residents agree with the change. As such, the spokesperson, speaking on behalf of the People’s Party, is demanding that the mayor of Albanchez de Mágina rectifies the situation and restores the holiday to its original and traditional date.
“The Socialist Party’s desire to move it to April 30th and completely separate it from the religious events is solely aimed at severing the festivities from the Christian faith and inventing a weekend of secular holiday,” León wrote, and argued that the change renders May 4 into a regular working day — an act that, he asserted, prevents workers and teachers from celebrating their faith on that day.
“That is the day [May 4] that corresponds to it by history, tradition and faith, and we request that traditions not be politically instrumentalized for political purposes,” León said.
Failure to do so, the Popular Party emphasized, will see the party do “everything necessary and knock on every door” to ensure that PSOE “does not take away our traditions, trample on our faith, and once again set the local festivities around May 4.”
The Spanish newspaper ABC reports that local Albanchez de Mágina residents have rallied against the recent actions of the socialist councilors.
Per the newspaper, a citizens’ group of about 350 members recently formed in the town with the expressed goal of upholding their town’s traditions. The group reportedly denounced to ABC on Thursday that the socialist councilors unilaterally went ahead with the change despite numerous conversations held over the past year on the matter. Another local citizens group is reportedly preparing a motion seeking to annul the holiday change.
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