Spain to revoke protected status of town’s ‘sexist’ Holy Week, confusion over Madrid’s cancelled rubbish tax, Spanish government secures validation for crisis measures from Catalan nationalists and more news on Wednesday March 25th.
Spanish government secures validation for crisis measures from Catalan nationalists
Spain’s ruling Socialists and their minority government will again have to rely on Catalan nationalist party Junts to get a law approved in parliament.
Two days before the vote to validate the 80 crisis measures aimed at mitigating the effects of the war in Iran, Sánchez has secured the necessary votes to pass the €5 billion relief bill which includes rents freezes as well as fuel and electricity discounts for the Spanish population.
In order to convince Junts, the PSOE has agreed to the VAT reduction for self-employed workers, as demanded by Puigdemont’s party.
Advertisement
Spain to revoke protected status of town’s ‘sexist’ Holy Week
The Spanish government will begin the procedure to withdraw the declaration of National Tourist Interest from the Holy Week of Sagunto (Valencia) after the new veto by the Brotherhood of the Most Pure Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ on the participation of women in the processions.
The decision comes after the brotherhood once again rejected amending its statutes to allow female membership.
Spain’s leftist government emphasizes that the defence of equality “is above any other consideration” and warns that it will act against any form of discrimination.
The Spanish Women’s Institute has also received several complaints alleging “possible discriminatory conduct” by Sagunto’s religious brotherhood.
Spain registers record European patent applications
Spanish companies and inventors have reached 2,255 European patent applications in 2025, representing a 2.9 percent increase compared to 2024 and the highest annual volume of European patent applications from Spain recorded to date, the European Patent Office (EPO) announced Tuesday in a statement.
According to the EPO’s ‘Technology Dashboard 2025’, Spain represents 1.1 percent of the total number of applications submitted to the EPO and ranks ninth in volume of applications within the European Union (EU), fifteenth worldwide and twenty-fifth in volume of applications per capita.
Some reports in the Spanish press refer to it as a bittersweet milestone, with El Español newspaper running an article titled “Spain breaks patent record, but remains trapped on the European technological periphery”.
Advertisement
Confusion over Madrid’s cancelled rubbish tax
A recent decision by Madrid High Court ‘s (TSJM) annulling the city’s rubbish collection tax has left Madrid’s right-wing City Council not knowing what to do.
In essence, Madrid’s right-wing city council is unclear whether it will have to return the money collected from Madrid residents for this tax – which amounts to €296 million – and, if so, whether it will only have to reimburse those citizens who appealed, or all Madrid residents.
Crucially, could the courts soon decide to do the same elsewhere? Rule changes in 2025 mean that most towns and cities in Spain that didn’t already have a waste collection tax were forced to implement one or increase their rates.
Judges declared Madrid’s rubbish tax null and void because the government of Mayor José Luis Almeida did not include key data to justify the cost of the tax in the public information phase.
