Civil

So few babies have not been born since the Civil War

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Barcelona is a dynamic city, destination for thousands of foreigners looking for a new life in Europe and a territory that takes years seeing how its census grows almost uninterruptedly. Still, that doesn’t mean its demographic engine is well-oiled. On the contrary. The latest data published by the City Council show that, after almost a decade of decline, in 2025 its birth rate marked the second lowest level since 1900. Since the beginning of the 20th century there was only one year in which fewer babies were born in Barcelona: 1939, when the Civil War ended. In fact, if the Barcelona census remains more or less afloat it is basically thanks to the flow of immigrants. What has happened? That the Barcelona City Council has published their official demographic data as of January 1, 2026 and the general ‘photo’ they leave is full of chiaroscuros. The city’s population remains more or less stable, with 1,729,963 registered0.1% less than the previous year. It is not a bad figure if you take into account that Barcelona has been gaining residents from 2022 and that at the beginning of the century the census barely exceeded 1.5 million. What’s more, the local government relates this slight decline of 0.1% to a simple administrative issue. In his opinion they are explained (at least in part) because there are people who were still registered in Barcelona without living there and have now “regularized” their situation. “Barcelona is the administrative and physical gateway to the territory,” clarify the deputy mayor, Jordi Valls. Resident population in Barcelona (1900-2026) Perfect, right? Not quite. It is true that the loss of population has been minimal, almost negligible, and that Barcelona has been gaining population practically since the beginning of the century; But that doesn’t mean the city’s demographic engine is working well. On the contrary. Its vegetative balance (the difference between births and deaths) is in the red. To be more precise, last year Barcelona saw how they died 3,549 neighbors more than those who were born. This data is explained because, although in general the number of deaths was reduced, the number of births decreased even more. The statistics of the City Council also reveal that this imbalance occurs in practically the entire city. “The negative natural balance is spread across all districts with the exception of Ciutat Vella, where for the third consecutive year there are more births than deaths,” clarify from the Consistory. This is an interesting note because of what it reveals to us about the birth rate in Barcelona. Are so few children born? Yes. The Barcelona statistical office counted last year 11,012 birthsa bad fact no matter how you look at it. Not only does it represent a decline of 1.3% compared to 2024. If we broaden the focus we see that this decrease aggravates the negative trend that the municipality has suffered since 2017 and, above all, distances it (even further) from the peaks in birth rates that it registered during the ‘baby boom’. For reference, the 11,012 births in 2025 are almost three times lower than those recorded in 1973, when the city saw 31,689 cradle Barcelonans born. The 2025 figure is in fact the second lowest in the entire historical series of the Barcelona Department of Statistics and Data Dissemination, which dates back to 1900. Since then there has only been one year in which fewer babies were born: 1939. That year they came into the world in Barcelona. 8,992 people. It is not surprising if we take into account that it was the last of the war and in 1938 the municipality had registered a record number of deaths (almost 28,200). At that time the total registry was also very inferiorit barely exceeded a million. Births and deaths (1900-2025) Immigrants, emigrants and administrative movements (1971-2025) How is the census maintained? Thanks to immigration, basically. “During 2025 the natural balance between births and deaths was -3,549 people, but it was offset by a positive migration balance of +11,383 people,” recognize the City Council, which confirms that the flow of foreigners “continues to be the essential component of demographic dynamics.” This is not an isolated fact or something temporary. From the Town Hall confirm that the population arriving from other countries has been “the protagonist of demographic growth” in Barcelona so far in the 21st century. Last year, in fact, the number of those registered with foreign nationality rose another slight 0.7%. Can we go further? That immigration has become the great demographic driver of Barcelona is something that can already be felt in its social structure. The “native population” was no longer the majority in 2019 and today in the city it is easier to meet people born in other places than in a Barcelona hospital. To be more precise, the City Council calculates that on January 1 the native population barely represented 44.6% of the total. In Barcelona there are 626,924 people registered who were born outside of Spain, the vast majority (53.2%) from America, although there are also many residents born in Pakistan, Morocco, Italy and China. And that among a long list of 181 different nationalities. Almost a third (30%) of those born abroad have already acquired Spanish nationality and today they represent 11% of the registry. What happens with age? The municipal statistics They also allow us to understand how the Barcelona population pyramid evolves. Another interesting indicator, since, although the immigrants who come to the city tend to be young, the average age of the general population has risen to 44.6 years. Nothing surprising if we take into account that the pyramid is clearly widening at the summit. As of January 1, there were 1,196 people residing in Barcelona who had already blown out the 100 candles, an all-time high. Meanwhile, the number of homes in which children and adolescents live is decreasing, and they do not even represent a quarter. What does increase is the education of the population: 37.4% of those registered over … Read more

Spain will have 27,000 new civil servants. The surprise is that experts in AI, cybersecurity and data science are now sought

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In recent years, Spain has promoted the public employment calls. This has managed to beat historical figures in the number of places and, although the OEP (Public Employment Offer) of 2025 took its foot off the accelerator, the Council of Ministers has just approved the OEP corresponding to 2026 with figures somewhat higher than those of the previous period. What draws attention is something else: the 1,700 positions for information technology specialists to achieve a ambitious goal. Transform Administration thanks to AI. 27,000 for the AGE. How has published The Government through the Ministry for Digital Transformation and Public Service, the OEP 2026 includes 27,232 places for the General Administration of the State. It represents a small increase compared to the 26,889 places last yearalthough it continues to show that there is a personnel problem. The breakdown is 26,886 ordinary places and 346 corresponding to an extraordinary offer linked to the climate emergency. The Government points out that this offer will generate 6,200 net jobs and ensures that, since 2021, the different public employment offers have met the objective of rejuvenating the public workforce, with an average age now at 49 years. New specialists. Now, the big news is that the Administration wants profiles that are much more specialized in technology. Of these positions, 1,700 will be for information technology specialists. It is estimated that it is 42% more than those called in the previous offer and it is not only the increase in places, but also the profiles they are looking for. Because what they are looking for are “specialists in Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity and Data Science” with the aim of, according to Minister Óscar López, “transforming the Administration.” López points out that we have to see what the administration’s priorities are, the needs of citizens and, thus, “have a more effective and efficient administration with the use of AI and the creation of quality public employment.” More digitization. This increase in digital profiles is supported by Government figures that indicate that the percentage of citizens who use official websites or applications is 83% while the European average is 75%. Furthermore, they point out that Spain is seven points above the average in digitalization of the Public Administration. The objective they aspire to is to increase digital administrative procedures by 25%, digitizing public administration. If this is going to be accompanied by the destruction of jobs, López affirms no and that what they are going to do is transform those jobs, not destroy them. They do not detail much else, other than that a series of digital training courses will be carried out with AI modules and “data tools” to strengthen the digital skills of all public employees. Exceeding 37,000. In total, counting the beaches already announced for the National Police, Civil Guard and Armed Forces, the OEP 2026 will exceed 37,000 places, slightly above the 36,588 last year. And, beyond the striking nature of these digital offers in AI and “data”, the Government intends to reinforce strategic areas such as the energy transition, the prevention of climate emergencies and the fight against climate change. The problem is that, according to the OECD, Spanish public employment remains below the international average. In the 2025 report, the OECD pointed out that Spanish public employment represented 15.25% of the total active population in 2023, with the average for all OECD countries being 18.41%. We will have to wait for more recent reports to see if the record rally of 2023 and 2024 has reversed the situation. Image | Treball Generalitat (edited) In Xataka | The easiest oppositions to pass in Spain following three criteria: by syllabus, by places and by requirements

a poacher, two 200 kilo specimens and a stratospheric fine from the Civil Guard

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On April 20, the Civil Guard detained a professional fisherman in the port of Águilas (Murcia) with two freshly caught bluefin tuna. Each piece weighed a few pounds and the guy had no specific authorization, he had not communicated either his departure or his entry into the port and, of course, there was no trace of traceability documentation. With Law 3/2001, of March 26, on State Maritime Fisheries in the hand, the fisherman is exposed to a fine of up to 600,000 euros for what would be the most expensive kilo of tuna in the world. The story, however, is more interesting. That great success called ‘bluefin tuna’. Atlantic bluefin tuna is one of the great fishery management successes of the 21st century. It has gone from being on the brink of collapse in 2007 to be declared by the IUCN as a species of “least concern” in 2021. I don’t want to exaggerate, but it is something amazing. And the sanctioning regime has had a lot to do with it. Because we don’t even need to remember it, but tuna fishing (even today) is full of irregularities. Understandably, on the other hand. Because, whether we like it or not, the success of tuna recovery has made poaching easier and more profitable than before. Let us keep in mind that, at the beginning of the year, Japan Tuna was auctioned at 11,500 euros per kilo. Obviously, it is an exceptional case, but it gives an idea of ​​the perverse incentives generated by the black market. The striking thing is that what SEPRONA has “hunted” in Águilas cquadruples the legal annual fee that the ships of the Region of Murcia have assigned. Can we do better? We’re not doing it wrong, really:The figures speak for themselves. But the situation is very complex. It makes no sense that recreational bluefin tuna fishing in Spain has become a race to go fishing first. In the last five years, the longest effective fishing season was seven days in 2021. That is, it took fishermen a week to accidentally kill so many tuna that the fishing ended. In 2022 and 2023 there were five days and In the following years, three. Above all, because we know that with tougher regulations this doesn’t happen. We are working on it. Not everything we need, but it’s something. This January it came into force a regulation that tries to digitize the capture record and close the “statistical black hole”. The experts are worse They are not very optimistic either.. They fear that the pressure will grow year after year and that we will not go fast enough. Come on, either we step on the accelerator or things are going to get more and more complicated. And, in the end, the solution will only come when the current system bursts at the seams. It wouldn’t be something exceptional: we are specialists in it. As I said, the good news and the bad news are the same: that this will happen soon. Image | Peter Lam CH In Xataka | Spain is going to continue fishing for eels until we have no more eels to catch

The dogs of La Rioja are turning industrial estates into Need For Speed. The Civil Guard has not been amused

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The Civil Guard has been dismantled in La Rioja a modified vehicle hangout whose drivers had a very clear intention: to organize illegal races and perform different illegal maneuvers (skidding, acceleration, etc.) as an exhibition. Although they enjoyed the plan for a few hours, the party ended with 120 people identified, 25 sanctions and crimes such as possession of weapons and driving under the influence of drugs. The Spanish Fast and Furious. A meeting spread through social networks, with the presence of influencers and with more than one hundred participants from several autonomous communities. The Civil Guard had been monitoring the call for weeks, articulating both an intervention operation and a preventive surveillance and control device in various industrial estates in the region. Real images of the meeting, broadcast on the internet. burning wheel. According to the authorities, the agents observed exhibition maneuvers such as skidding, sudden accelerationsburning tires, near the public parking lot of one of the shopping centers in La Rioja. In nearby industrial estates, drivers were detected carrying out illegal races, who are now being investigated for crimes against road safety. It’s not something new. This same weekend the Civil Guard has investigated three people for participating in an illegal vehicle race in the Villaluenga-Yuncler industrial estate, in the province of Toledo. The operation was part of an operation that is underway since Februaryand that has already claimed several arrests for illegal races in the area. Last March Traffic officers detained 33 drivers for the same reason, in the industrial estates of Lleida. Andalusia is not spared either, where recently A gathering was dismantled in one of the main avenues of the city. what’s happening. Nothing that hasn’t been happening for decades. Since the early 2000sillegal racing remains alive in Spain. Modified car hangouts are not a random crime: they are a subculture that has been outside the law for years and that, with the arrival of social networks and messaging apps, has it even easier to attract followers. What for decades was an invisible counterculture, confined to polygons and internet forums, is now announced on social networks, filmed live and exposed more than ever. And if not, tell that to the guy who asked his partner to marry him in the middle of a car meetup… and ended up seriously run over. In Xataka | Saudi Arabia believes the world deserves an F1 circuit on par with Mario Kart. So it’s being built

The countries of the Persian Gulf have adopted an unexpected civil protection measure against Iran’s attacks: teleworking

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When an employee in Riyadh receives an email from his company telling him not to come to the office the next day, the most common reason was usually a sandstorm, construction work, or a holiday. In recent weeks, the reason has been something else: the possibility that its offices, probably located in a downtown financial district, could become Iranian missile target. In the Persian Gulf, teleworking has ceased to be a post-pandemic convenience and has become a civil protection tool in the midst of a geopolitical crisis that has been repeated in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Bahrain since the start of the armed conflict between the US, Israel and Iran. Riyadh: the most visible offices, the first to be emptied. According to published Reutersseveral Western and Saudi companies in Riyadh this week expanded their teleworking recommendations via email or text message sent to their employees. The notices focused on employees working in the King Abdullah financial district, Faisaliah Tower, Business Gate and Laysen Valley, areas where major US banks, technology companies such as Microsoft and Apple, and the Saudi sovereign wealth fund itself are based. The arguments for adopting this measure were not unfounded. Iran threatened to attack American interests in the region in retaliation and, in fact, attacked several Amazon data centers in United Arab Emirates. The order to telework does not mean that this simple measure will keep the civilian population safe, but it does distance them from the international offices occupied by American companies. The Arab Emirates were the first to adopt teleworking. The United Arab Emirates were, in fact, the first in ordering teleworking for its employees, immediately after Iran’s first attacks. According to published the local newspaper Khaleej Times, The Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratization asked private companies to adopt teleworking as a precautionary measure, keeping only workers whose physical presence was essential in their jobs. In those first attacks, four people were injured by debris from intercepted drones that fell on residential buildings, and damage was reported to the dubai international airportthe Burj Al Arab and the Palm Jumeirah. Teleworking recommended, not mandatory. The authorities of other countries in the region, such as Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, also followed in the footsteps of the United Arab Emirates and recommended private companies adopt teleworking and restrictions on influx to offices due to the risk of Iranian missile attacks. Qatar, also punished for reprisals against US interests during the conflict, was another of the countries that activated teleworking protocols for its officials. However, something that all of them have in common is that none of them consider themselves as an obligation to teleworkbut rather companies are recommended to adopt teleworking, leaving the risk assessment to their discretion and that of local authorities. The Government of Dubai Media Office confirmed that the emirate’s private sector continued operating normally, with most business activities uninterrupted despite the risk of attacks. A region that learns to work under pressure. Although these countries are not officially at war with Iran, they are involved and targeted in Iranian attacks in retaliation against US and Israeli companies in the area. In this context, many fear that any escalation would lead Iran to attack critical infrastructure in the region more forcefully, which explains the caution of companies even after the announcement of the ceasefire reached in extremis during the early morning. trump qualified the pact of “total and complete victory.” But as negotiators work in Islamabad to turn that provisional ceasefire into a lasting agreement, Gulf companies continue to watch the calendar with one eye on the news and another on their security protocols to protect their employees. In Xataka | Working from anywhere was the dream of teleworking: not notifying those location changes can get you fired Image | Unsplash (Kate Trysh, Microsoft Copilot)

While in the US there is a civil war over military AI, a European one has sneaked into the French Armed Forces: Mistral

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One of the big topics of conversation in recent weeks is the civil war in the United States. between two of the AI ​​giants and the Government itself. To sum up, Anthropic gave in his artificial intelligence Claude to the Pentagon to integrate it into all its systems along with Palantir. It is estimated that it has been a key tool for capture Nicolás Madurobut also to attack Iranbut since the US wanted to go further and Anthropic refused, OpenAI took its place. It is a very strange situation because the result could be that The US blacklists Anthropic as if it were Huawei. It would be the first time they have done that to an American company and it is something that tells us two things. The first is that governments need big technology companies and their tools. The second is that technology companies also have a lot to gain. And, while all that noise is happening in the United States, in Europe another AI company has ‘sneaked’ into its country’s security systems. We refer to a Mistral that, without making noisehas been building its portfolio of contacts in European defense systems for some time. A local AI for the security of Europe With all the spotlights pointing to ChatGPT, Claude and Chinese equivalents such as DeepSeekothers have been carving out a niche for themselves. Almost without a sound, and overnight, a French company called Mistral was building multilingual models that rivaled the American alternatives that captured all eyes. Founded in June 2023, Mistral will soon converted in the French technological jewel, but also in the Europe’s AI gem. Its managers, engineers who came from Google (deepmind) and Meta, managed to attract the attention of NVIDIA, ASML, Samsung, IBM, Salesforce or a Microsoft that invested 15 million euros and incorporated Mistral models into Azure. Mistral’s policy is to release the code of its models so that anyone can analyze, use and adapt it. According to them, it is something that will accelerate innovation and, without the muscle of the American giants, their approach is to a large model with other smaller and specialized ones. At the beginning of this year, the bombshell arrived. The Ministry of the Armed Forces of France arrive to an agreement with Mistral AI to integrate the company’s models, software and services in public entities related to the ministry. For example, the Atomic Energy Commission, the National Office of Aerospace Studies and Research, the Hydrographic and Oceanographic Service of the Navy and, also, the Armed Forces. It is the Ministry of Defense Artificial Intelligence Agency that will supervise all operations, but the idea is to “deploy Mistral tools in France’s infrastructure, ensuring full control over data and critical technologies.” From the Government, it was noted that, with these new tools, they can prepare the Armed Forces for the challenges of the future. However, the fact that Mistral is the Defense model in France may matter little to us… unless we take two things into account. The first: shortly after this agreement became known, public information on how Mistral is seeking Defense contracts outside France. They are getting more and more into this path, signing agreements with Helsinga German defense startup, and Arthur Mensch, CEO of Mistral, argued that its AI models will be “instrumental in the development of a new generation of defense systems.” Here comes the second thing to take into account. Mensch himself commented that these tools “will ensure Europe’s strategic advantage on the global stage”. This is important because Europe is now at a point where it has realized that the partners and allies of the past may not be the same as those of the future. European sovereignty At the user level we see movements like those of independence from American technologiesbut at a political level, Mistral responds to that search for European sovereignty. Instead of leaving your Defense-related systems in the hands of a foreign company, these agreements mean that it is a European company that is on the inside. And, in the end, this is not just about AI. In recent months we are seeing how Europe is moving to have a more powerful voice in terms of semiconductors, computing for artificial intelligence and even in the new space race. For a long time it has been said that others innovate and Europe legislates, but the current situation It has caused Europe to continue legislating while doing everything else. Images | Mistral AI, Amio Cajander In Xataka | The United States wants to be “sovereign” on a technological level. The problem is that everything it builds depends on other countries

that civil servants work less

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The reduction of working hours It was one of the most visible commitments of the Government for this legislature. Its objective was to reduce the working day from 40 to 37.5 hours per week without loss of pay. The proposal was processed, but ended running aground in Congress due to lack of support. Faced with this blockage, the Executive has chosen to advance where it does not need to negotiate with third parties or with Parliament. That is, on the only work area in which they have direct decision-making capacity: the officials of the General State Administration who do not depend on autonomous communities or city councils. The parliamentary failure of the 37.5-hour day. The general reduction in working hours required modifying the Workers Statute and, therefore, overcome a key vote in Congress. That support did not arrive, which left the measure without a legislative path in the short term. In this scenario, the Ministry of Labor formally maintains its commitment to reducing working hours, but cannot apply it to the entire labor market. This limitation explains the shift towards state public employment, where the Executive acts as a direct employer and can agree on the working conditions of state Administration officials, without having the support of the rest of the forces in the chamber. The 35-hour day and the reinforcement of teleworking. In this context, the core of agreement reached between the Ministry of Public Function and the unions involves implementing a 35-hour work week per week for employees of the General State Administration. The Government’s forecast is to approve it at the beginning of 2026 and for it to begin to be applied from February, once the organizational adjustments are finalized in each department. Along with the reduction in hours, the pact reinforces the Administration’s commitment to teleworking. It is not about introducing it from scratch, but about consolidating and organizing a modality that already exists, providing it with more stable regulations. The objective is to clarify conditions, guarantee technical means and prevent remote work from depending solely on internal decisions of each administrative unit. Both measures exclusively affect personnel dependent on the State. Excluding those public officials dependent on the autonomous communities, city councils and bodies with specific regimes, who maintain their own negotiating capacity. An important nuance: civil servants already worked less. The starting point for implementing this model of reducing working hours is not the same as in the private sector. The officials of the General Administration of the State had already established for years a working day of 37.5 hours per week, less than the ordinary legal of 40 hours. In fact, in public administrations dependent on communities such as Andalusia, Extremadura, the Basque Country, the Canary Islands, Asturias and Castilla-La Mancha and Castilla y León, already applied this 35-hour day since 2019, although some administrations they suspended them temporarily. This makes the measure announced now a continuing step that is already applied in other Administrations, thus equating state officials with regional officials. The other leg of the agreement: the pending salary increase. He agreement reached between the Ministry of Public Service and the majority unions is not limited to the working day. It also unlocks the application of the 2.5% salary increase corresponding to 2025, which had been pending payment, and 1.5% for 2026. This point is key to understanding the balance of the agreement since the reduction in working hours will not only imply a salary reduction, but is accompanied by a reinforcement of the purchasing power of officialsafter successive salary freezes and a context of inflation. Limited movement. Given that these changes only affect officials dependent on the State Administration, the real scope of the measure is limited in quantitative terms, since it affects approximately 250,000 public officials. However, it is a powerful incentive to attract the best talent to the Public Administration to address its rejuvenation process of the templates, and offering job stability and conciliation options. Factors that private companies increasingly limiting. In Xataka | The hoteliers cried out to the sky with the reduced working day. A hotel in the Balearic Islands has proven them wrong Image | Unsplash (Lissette Laverde)

In 2025, the salary of 6,800 Valencian civil servants depends on an Access form. Only one person knows how it works

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According to has revealed According to the Audit of personnel expenses of the Generalitat Administration prepared by the Sindicatura de Comptes, the Valencian Community is experiencing a situation that is torn between the surreal and the negligence: two computer systems on which the payrolls of almost 6,800 civil servants and public employees depend cannot exchange data. The only way to achieve this is through an application made in Microsoft Access by a single person who would also be the only one who knows how to maintain and update it. SIGNO and GESPERJU2 do not speak to each other. He SIGN program (Integrated Payroll Management System and Others) is the internal computer system of the Generalitat Valenciana used for the management, calculation and payment of payrolls of civil servants and labor personnel of the Valencian Administration, including education, health and other services, allowing procedures such as direct debits and registrations or cancellations of employees. On the other hand, the GESPERJU2 program is a platform that manages the labor files of the personnel at the service of the Justice Administration of the Valencian Community, in processes such as the management of payrolls, permits and other administrative and human resources situations of its staff of judges, magistrates and Justice officials. What is expected is that the platform that manages payroll and the one that manages whether employees are on leaveon vacation or have requested a leave of absence were connected. To the surprise of the auditors of the Sindicatura de Comptes, these two platforms cannot exchange data. An “improvised” connection. As and stood out The Economistthat the officials of the Department of Justice of the Valencian Community receive their payroll on time and without errors depends only on a “patch” in the form of an application created with Microsoft Access. That’s not the auditors’ most surprising discovery, however. The person who created this application is the only one capable of updating the salary tables and other parameters necessary so that the officials’ payrolls are processed without problems. According to the Syndicate reportthis disconnection between platforms has left the Administration in a situation of “absolute dependence on a person”, in addition to “posing a high risk of continuity of operation if this person could not use this parallel application.” We imagine that at this moment, that person will be the best protected official in the Valencian Administration. Two platforms and end up doing it by hand. Another derivative is added to this unprecedented fact. The Access application has its limitations, so some payroll incidents must be done by hand by an official, so that they are reflected correctly. As the audit report noted, “the calculation of certain payroll incidents is carried out manually (arrears, three-year terms previously consolidated in General Administration positions, salary supplements for vertical replacements or guards), which increases the possibility of errors.” As described in the report, the integration problem would not be limited to Justice. Also mentioned is the risk that, due to a lack of communication between platforms, the same person who has had their position changed or promoted, could “collect two salaries simultaneously” (in the old position and in the new one) without being detected. TALIA: the great promise. TALIA is the new personnel management application that is proposed to replace the current ones and whose first phase has already would be tendered and awarded. The promise of TALIA is that personnel information and payrolls of Administration personnel will no longer live on separate and unconnected islands. However, its deployment is planned for years to come (if deadlines are met), and the precedent of delays and cost overruns in implementations like the one suffered with NEFIS in 2019. Until then, someone in the Valencian Administration will ensure that paid for the Office license. In Xataka | Companies bet everything on returning to the office. The public administration has an ace up its sleeve: teleworking Image | Unsplash (Rafael Oliveira)

In Spain, Christian baptisms are in free fall. There are those who have found a substitute: civil baptisms

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There was a time when children arrived with something more than a bread under their arm. They did it with an invitation (almost mandatory) to the baptism. They were their parents more or less believers, more or less practitioners, most babies passed through the baptismal pia. Not today. Just like Not all The couples who marry do so before a Catholic priest. As society It is secularized New rituals gain strength, such as civil weddings or “Baptisms Lacios”, which two decades after their premiere in Spain They continue to expand. They may not be a majority option or have reached the level of popularity of civil links (which do have a legal character), but lay and symbolic baptisms have gone making his way Little by little in the Spanish geography. Civil baptisms? The concept may be shocking, but It has been a few years old extending through Spain and there are still municipalities that incorporate it into its service portfolio In full 2025. A civil christening It is neither more nor less than the secular alternative to Christian baptisms, a secular ceremony, usually free of religious connotations, during which a child’s entry into society is represented. Nothing else. Nothing less. And although it lacks legal value, in some cases it is accompanied by A symbolic title. The former mayor of Valencia, Joan Ribó, in May 2023, during the first “welcome ceremony to the citizenship” of the City Council. Is it something new? No. at all. There are those who go back their origins to the “civil sponsorship” that were held in France from the late eighteenth century. In Spain they are not a novelty either. Its history can go at least to Autumn of 2004when the first “foster care” was held at the City Council of Igualada. Since then the formula has been extended to other municipalities in the country. In 2007 Rivas Vaciamadrid began to celebrate them, Madrid and The Borge They joined in 2009Albacete In 2011Moaña In 2013 and Vigo In 2018… and thus a long (and growing) list of municipalities distributed throughout the country. How many? Difficult to specify it, although the number of municipalities that celebrate them exceed the hundred. In 2018 only in Catalonia they were offered in 71 municipalities. In 2022 Cullera Laya had accounts and calculated that in the whole of Spain at least 150 municipalities willing to organize ceremonies of “civil foster care”. The same figure shared it in 2023 Religion in freedom. The truth is that the list has followed (and continues) growing over time. In May 2023 The first civil christening was organized in Valencia and shortly the payroll of municipalities that deliver citizenship letters to babies will increase with a new incorporation: Lovesa Galician people of 32,800 inhabitants that It has just approved The ordinance that regulates them. “Although they may seem simple symbolic ceremonies and without legal validity, their existence represents a step towards a model of coexistence in which all families can participate,” defend A councilor. Year Catholic baptisms Number of births 2008 335,484 519,779 2012 268.810 454,648 2017 214,271 393,181 2022 159,129 329,251 2023 152,426 320,656 Are many celebrated? Another difficult question to answer. There are no global or official balances, but the data that has been shared in account in the press suggest two trends: the first, that the “civil christening” has been gaining weight in the Spanish geography, expanding to dozens of locations; second, which is far from reaching the reception level of Catholic ceremonies. In 2017 Albacete digital He revealed that since 2011 they had been held in the town about twenty of civil receptions. That same year, at the time the service premiered, Vigo added Several tens of applications. His success has also been marked by political fluctuations. In Valencia, for example, only For a few months. After the change of government, the new team decided to do without them without apparently having great impact. As it transpired then, seven requests had been registered. Civil ceremony held in 2023 in Valencia. Are there more clues? Yeah. The confidential published on Tuesday A report in which he spoke with professionals in the sector that confirm an increase of interest in the format. “I have been in the business business for new years and lately demand for civil baptisms, a strong fashion also in the United States,” An organizer recounts of events. A quick search for #Bautizosimbolico, #Ceremoniadebienvenida or #bautizocivil on Instagram or Tiktok It shows that lay acts continue to be held, both in Spain and in other countries. What is your goal? Celebrate. Introduce. Welcome. During civil baptisms the arrival of newborns, their “entry” in society is celebrated. Sometimes it is done in the municipalities, with the participation of mayors. Others not. The normal thing is that during the ceremony Articles are read Related to the protection of childhood, such as the Spanish Constitution, the United Nations Constitution Rights Convention of 1990 or the Declaration of the Rights of the Child (1959). “It’s not that people don’t have faith, they want to make baptism something more intimate and emotional,” Share The same professional. “Everything I do depends on what parents choose, although the ritual usually develops around a table. Usually, the godparents sign an act with their commitment, a document that is not registered anywhere or has legal weight, but rather symbolic.” Is it an isolated phenomenon? No. The civil christening is not understood without the context and more specifically the secularization of society. After all, baptism (or foster care) is not the only sacrament that has been stripped of religious value. The clearest case is that of marriage. In 2009 the number of civil links exceeded for the first time to the Catholic weddings, with 94,993 ‘yes I want’ pronounced before civil authorities and 80,104 before priests. The situation has changed. In 2022 79.9% of links held in Spain they were civilians and only 20.1% religious. And that that last was the highest percentage recorded since 2019. The number of … Read more

After the civil war, Franco wanted to colonize empty Spain. So 300 new villages were invented

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Throughout Spain there are more than 8,100 municipalitieslarge and small villages, coast, mountain, bathed by the waters of the Cantabrian, the Atlantic or of Mediterranean climate. There are also very old, such as Brañoserafounded in the ninth century, and others so recent that their first inhabitants can still tell us about their origins. This is the case of the 300 populations promoted by the Franco dictatorship as part of its colonization policy. The peoples “Invented” By Franco. A figure: 55,000. The idea is so crazy, so huge, that often It is said which motivated one of the population displacements most important of the Spain of the twentieth century. Between 1940 and 1970 The Franco regime founded around 300 locations in 27 provinces (half in Andalusia and Extremadura) that ended up causing the displacement of 55,000 familiespeople who a good day made their bags and left their native municipalities attracted by the promises of these new -wedge settlements. “Peoples of Colonization”. The colossal project was developed under the auspices of the National Institute of Colonization (the Incan entity created After the civil war To carry out the Franco agricultural policy) and their promises were of course suggestive: families willing to move to the new settlements were offered homes and wide irrigation lands in which a future is carved. All this in property. At least in theory. Input, the settlers had to meet certain requirements. The lots were supposedly distributed by raffle, although there are who holds That not all candidates started with the same possibilities: Ideally was that they were part of large families (with children willing to work) and adjusted to the archetype dreamed by Francoism: devout, laborious Catholics and to be possible Without links With reprisals. Nor did everyone start with the same conditions. As remember ABCin 1945 the government approved an order that regulated how the colonists could access the houses, something that depended on their savings. Under the tutelage of the INC. Who could advance part of the value of the land (20%) entered a phase that the INC called “access to property”. Then they had to pay the rest of the amount to become owners of their homes and farms. The thing changed for the humblest settlers. They had to spend five years in “Tutela period”, a stage during which the Institute supervised what they cultivated and remained a portion of the crops as payment. Villalba de Calatrava, a town of colonization of the Calatrava Campo (Ciudad Real) Campo. How long did they spend like this? Depends. ABC appointment A town where that tutelage lasted until almost the end of the 60s, a time to which the families had to add the “access to property” stage. The newspaper also speaks of 25 -year deadlines to finish paying the lands (30 in the case of homes) with more than considerable interests, 3% or even 7%. To complete the picture, the INC had a structure that was in charge of “guardianship” the families of settlers through intermediate charges. In the first place were the agronomists, authors of the plans. Its guidelines passed to the expert and below this was the Mayoral, who supervised the farmers. And what was the goal? With the new settlement the Franco regime pursued several objectives. The program served to boost the Agrarian transformation (With irrigation extensions), expand the cultivable area, repopulate and transform the Spanish field, but also had an ideological background. With the new settlements, many baptized with names that They mentioned to the new regime and its referents (Caudillo Alberche, Villafranco del Guadiana either Águeda del Caudillo), The dictatorship also sought to project a new image and feed its advertising. The expansion of the new villages coincided with The bet of the dictatorship by hydraulic infrastructure. “The political strategy of the new State replaces the redistribution of the land (objective of the Second Republic) with a colonization policy based on the transformation of the rural that allowed to settle in villages of colonization a self -sufficient peasant”, Remember from the Ministry of Agriculture, on which the National Institute depended after its creation, in October 1939. A program with lights … The colonization policy of Francoism had social, economic, agricultural and even “undeniable” repercussions, such as They recognize From the ministry. And not only because the creation of hundreds of villages for Repopulation of the ’emptied Spain’ and postwar. Among the displaced there were those who, upon their arrival at the settlements, found infrastructures and unimaginable services in the villas from which they came. “When we got here it was like dreaming awake,” He recounts The country A retired farmer who arrived in Villalba in Calatrava (Ciudad Real) with his parents in 1964, when he was 12 years old. “There was a bathroom, with its cup and sink. In those years that had no one! He was very small, but having something like that was out of series.” The idea was that in the new settlements the settlers could opt for a house in fertile property and lands, contributing in passing to the economy of postwar Spain and the conversion of fields into irrigation. … And also with shadows. Not everything was positive. Despite the promises of housing and lands, many settlers to reach the property cost them years of sweat delivering part of their crops. “We were slaves,” confesses a The country Another old settler of The Bazanawhere he arrived with just 17 or 18 years. In 2018, already after 85, he remembered: “They paid you what they wanted for the crops, and then there came a point where they stopped buying them because the beans from Badajoz were very expensive.” The cultivation of the new lands was not always simple, just as it was not to follow the guidelines marked by the engineers and major people of the town. Others left their lifelong locations to move to new wedge settlements in which they had no roots, they were surrounded by strangers and (sometimes) they met half -finished works. “When … Read more

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