Spanish town's Socialist council moves patron saint holiday, drawing backlash

A small town in Andalusia has become the center of a national dispute after its Socialist-led council voted to move a centuries-old local holiday off the date tied to its patron saint’s festivities, drawing accusations from the opposition that the change is designed to strip the celebration of its religious character.

Albanchez de Magina, a town of roughly 900 residents in Spain’s Jaen province, holds an annual series of festivities from May 3 to May 6 honoring St. Francis of Paola, the town’s patron. The observances include a nighttime Procesión del Rosario de los Hachones (Rosary of the Torches) on May 3 and a procession honoring the saint on May 4, which has long doubled as the town’s official local holiday. The Catholic Church’s universal liturgical calendar marks the saint’s feast — an optional memorial — on April 2, the anniversary of his 1507 death; Albanchez de Magina’s May 4 observance is a separate, local patronal tradition rather than the saint’s liturgical feast day.

Councilors from the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party, or PSOE, who hold an absolute majority on the town council, voted this week to move that local holiday from May 4 to April 30 starting in 2027, separating the civic day off from the religious observance. According to the council, the shift is meant to combat depopulation by aligning the holiday with a long weekend, giving residents who have moved away for work a better chance to return for the festivities — a proposal PSOE had included in its local election platform, according to a council-sourced report.

The town’s opposition People’s Party, or PP, rejected that explanation. Party spokesman Mario Leon called the decision unilateral and said it was made without consulting opposition councilors or the religious brotherhood tied to the festivities, according to a detailed account of the council session. Mr. Leon accused the Socialists of trying to “trample on the faith of our neighbors and end the religious ceremonies” and said the change would push residents and visitors to hold the traditional events on a workday, complicating participation for workers and teachers.

The PP has asked Mayor Diego Fernandez, a Socialist, to reverse the vote and restore May 4 as the local holiday, and it says it will file a motion to annul the council’s decision. The party also plans to send a letter of complaint to PSOE’s provincial secretary-general in Jaén.

A newly formed Citizens’ Platform in Defense of the Traditions of St. Francis of Paola has separately called on the council to restore the original date, arguing the move creates a parallel, secular calendar detached from the saint’s local feast. The platform noted what it called a contradiction: the town has separately backed an effort to have the Rosario de los Hachones procession — part of the same May festivities — protected as a cultural heritage asset, even as it moves the holiday away from the tied observance.

“You cannot protect a tradition with one hand and dismantle its calendar with the other,” the group said.

The council has not disputed its legal authority to set the town’s local holidays; the platform said it does not question that authority but objects to how it was used.

The dispute in Albanchez de Magina echoes a broader, recurring argument in Spain over the relationship between local governments and Catholic tradition as the country’s public institutions grow more secular.