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ECONOMY

Spain approves record 2022 budget

Spain's fragmented parliament gave final approval Tuesday to the biggest budget in the country's history, with billions of euros from EU's huge Covid-19 recovery fund.

Published: 29 December 2021 10:35 CET
Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez
Photo: Gabriel BOUYS / AFP

Passage of the 2022 spending plan boosts the chances that Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s minority government will survive until the end of its mandate in late 2023.

Lawmakers voted 281-62 in favour of the budget, which calls for a record €240 billion  ($269 billion) in spending next year as the government seeks to spur activity in an economy badly hit by the coronavirus pandemic.

It includes €26.3 billion from the European Union’s economic recovery fund.

Spain is one of the main beneficiaries of the fund, with the country set to collect a total of €140 billion in grants and loans from it over six years.

Sánchez’s Socialists and its junior coalition partners, hard left party Podemos, hold only 155 of the 350 seats in Spain’s highly fragmentented parliament.

But the government struck deals with smaller leftist and regional parties to get their support for the budget, including one with Catalan separatist party ERC that sets a quota for regional languages on streaming platforms.

In a tweet sent just after the budget was approved, Sánchez said the budget is “key to consolidating a fair and inclusive recovery”.

“Hopefully this will be the prologue to many more agreements. We will be working on that,” he added.

Sánchez is betting the expansive budget will stoke an economic rebound from the Covid pandemic that has lost some momentum due to weak domestic consumption and a slower than expected recovery in its key tourism sector.

READ ALSO: Politics in Spain: Seven predictions for 2022

Among the measures financed by the budget is a payment of €400 to all those who turn 18 to spend on cultural activities, and a monthly rent subsidy of €250 for low-income youths.

Civil servants will get a 2.0 percent pay increase while old-age pensions will be increased in line with inflation.

The budget sees Spain’s public deficit to fall to the equivalent of 5.0 percent of Spain’s economic output next year, down from 8.4 percent in 2021.

But it is based on a prediction that Spain’s gross domestic product (GDP) will expand by 7.0 percent next year, a forecast many analysts say is unrealistic.

Spain’s economy contracted 10.8 percent in 2020, one of the worst results among industrialised countries, as pandemic travel restrictions crippled its tourism sector.

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SPANISH TRADITIONS

Everything you need to know about Mother’s Day in Spain

Here's how and when in May Mother's Day is celebrated in Spain, and why it owes its roots to religion and a Valencian poet.

Published: 3 May 2024 13:37 CEST
Everything you need to know about Mother's Day in Spain

This year, Mother’s Day (El Día de la Madre) is celebrated in Spain on Sunday May 5th. It’s always celebrated on the first Sunday of the month of May.

On this day, young children in Spain give their mothers manualidades (crafts) they’ve made at school as a token of their love.

Husbands and older sons and daughters may buy their wives/mothers a present to say thanks for all that they do as matriarchs, which usually takes the form of a detalle (smaller present than for a birthday or Christmas), and will come accompanied by a message such as te quiero, mamá (I love you, mum).

According to experiences website Aladinia, the average Spaniards spends €65 on gifts on Mother’s Day. 

Other mums may send out text messages to wish each other ¡Feliz Día de la Madre! (Happy Mother’s Day!).

As it’s always celebrated on a Sunday, many shops will be closed but you can expect plenty of restaurants to be open for lunch and perhaps dinner. 

Depending where you’re from, the first Sunday of May may or may not be when you’re used to celebrating Mother’s Day in your home country.

Around the world over 100 countries celebrate Mother’s Day (or Mothering Sunday, more on the difference below) – 77 in May, 13 in March, and 14 at other times during the year.

Some countries, like the UK, celebrate Mothering Sunday on the fourth Sunday during Lent, meaning that the date changes each year. This is because Mothering Sunday was originally a Christian holiday in some European countries.

READ ALSO: How a female teacher campaigned for Spain to have a Father’s Day

Spain, however, celebrates Mother’s Day on the first Sunday in May each year, meaning that it doesn’t have a fixed date either. But it wasn’t always like that.

The history of Mother’s Day in Spain

The first Mother’s Day in Spain was celebrated in Madrid all the way back on October 4th, 1926. Much of the impetus for establishing a day to celebrate mothers came, rather fittingly, from a poet.

Julio Menéndez García, a Valencian poet and public servant, pushed for a special day to celebrate mothers. Spanish newspaper La Libertad published a short section on Garcìa’s efforts in October 1925:

“A Levantine poet, Julio Menéndez García, has had the happy initiative that in Spain and in the Spanish-speaking nations a day should be consecrated to extol the love of mothers. The establishment of Mother’s Day is something tender and sympathetic, which deserves to be welcomed by governments, the press and public opinion, as it involves the highest tribute to women in their most august representation.”

After the Civil War, the church moved the date to December 8th to coincide with the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, a key holiday among Catholics. 

Civil War-era poster urging Madrid mothers to leave the Spanish capital with their children before the arrival of Franco’s troops. (Photo by AFP)

But it wasn’t until 1965 that Mother’s Day was celebrated in May in Spain. The reason for this change of date was to separate the celebrations (both were considered important enough to have their own day) but also the influence of other countries, namely the United States.

The campaign for a Mother’s Day was originally started by Anna Jarvis, an American wanting to honour her mother, in 1908. By 1914, US President Woodrow Wilson officially signed it into law, establishing a May date. 

However, for many years in Spain department store El Corte Inglés maintained the date of 8th December, meaning that Spain Mother’s Day was celebrated twice a year for a while, commercially speaking at least.

In 1936 a local council in Breña Baja, on the Canary island of La Palma, became the first in Spain to move Mother’s Day to May.

However, in 1965 the church authorities officially decided to move Mother’s Day to May, a month consecrated to the Virgin Mary. May is also the month of female gods in the classical world, and in Catholicism is dedicated to the Virgin Mary.

Interestingly, Jarvis herself later campaigned against the day, arguing it had become overly commercialised, something Spaniards often bemoan about other imported American customs like Halloween and Valentine’s Day. 

READ ALSO: How a female teacher campaigned for Spain to have a Father’s Day

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