Inside Spain: An independent León and will a shorter workday work?
In this week’s Inside Spain, we look at why the Spanish province of León no longer wants to be part of Castilla y León and why not everyone is happy about the Spanish government’s planned reduction in daily work hours.
Castilla y León is Spain’s biggest region and very much off the tourist trail, given its location in the country’s interior away from the beaches and resorts.
It’s made up of nine provinces: Ávila, Burgos, Palencia, Salamanca, Segovia, Soria, Valladolid, Zamora and León, all of which conjure up images of a bygone time where castles, knights and sparse plains dominated the landscapes.
But all is not well in this autonomous community as the province of León wants to break away from the Castilla part of Castilla Y León and become Spain’s 18th region, in what the Spanish press have dubbed ‘Lexit’, a combo of León and Exit.
Political party The Leonese People's Union (UPL) on Wednesday proposed in the regional parliament that León, Zamora and Salamanca become an independent autonomous community called León, a motion supported by the Socialists but rejected by right-wing parties PP and Vox.
As a poll carried out by Electomanía reflects, Leonese people are the Spaniards that feel less identified by their autonomous region.
Un día más recordando que León,Zamora y Salamanca no tienen sentimiento identitario hacia CyL. Una encuesta privada #Lexit pic.twitter.com/1l5b2JaYTi
— Rober (@Robercc41) June 28, 2024
The Kingdom of León, which encompassed the provinces of León, Zamora and Salamanca, did exist from 910 to 1833, up until when the modern Spanish territorial demarcation was defined and divided this historic territory into three provinces.
READ ALSO: Moving to Spain - Which city in Castilla y León is the best?
There have been calls for independence for León for some forty years, with nostalgia and the sense that the provinces that make up Castilla are holding León back due to their deindustrialisation and crucially depopulation, as this part is the country is very much what’s known as 'Empty Spain'.
Whether this ‘Lexit’ actually comes to fruition is unlikely, but it does serve as evidence that apart from the Basque and Catalan independence pushes to break away from Spain, there are other corners of the country that want greater autonomy.
In fact, the crime-riddled Andalusian city of La Línea de la Concepción right next to Gibraltar, and the vastly underpopulated Aragonese province of Teruel have also in recent years suggested gaining independence from their autonomous communities to better deal with their problems.
READ MORE:
- 'Easiest way to make a living': Southern Spain struggles to keep youth out of drug gangs
- How ‘Empty Spain’ is now a political party
On another note, last January Spanish Labour Minister Yolanda Díaz said her ministry would soon reduce the working week by two and a half hours (half an hour less a day), a decision aimed at improving the work-life balance of 12 million employees across the country.
The plan is for it to go from the current 40 hours per week to 38.5 hours by September 2024 when the legislation is expected to be approved, and 37.5 hours at the start of 2025.
Spain has a serious problem with unpaid extra work hours, especially in the private sector, so the Spanish Labour Ministry wants to ensure unions and the Spanish Confederation of Business Organizations (CEOE) actually stick to the new rules with more inspections and tighter fines.
Díaz has accused CEOE of kicking the can down the road by not presenting any proposal to the workday reduction over the past six months.
And this may come as no surprise, given that most business associations in Spain have opposed the measure, from stressing how much it will cost the country economically (SMEs will reportedly lose €42 billion) to saying businesses may close down and jobs lost.
🎧El economista, @bosca_e, sobre la reducción de la jornada laboral👇
🗣"A medio y largo plazo, esto no se sostiene en una economía de mercado. Está basado en una falacia. El intentar reducir las horas para repartir el empleo no funciona"https://t.co/kAid9UhVm9 pic.twitter.com/7NfPWJYDWa
— Herrera en COPE (@HerreraenCOPE) June 26, 2024
Spanish economist José Emilio Boscá described another reason for the work reduction - spreading out the work among more people - as a "fallacy" that won't work, and argued that in regions such as the Basque Country where high productivity levels have been reached, shorter work days have been agreed to as a result, but doing so in unproductive regions has never been tested yet.
Furthermore, in a country where hours behind the desk have always tended to count more than productivity, and where legislation that’s rolled out doesn’t always get properly implemented in practice, it’s hard to believe that all workers will be able to clock off 30 minutes earlier soon.
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Castilla y León is Spain’s biggest region and very much off the tourist trail, given its location in the country’s interior away from the beaches and resorts.
It’s made up of nine provinces: Ávila, Burgos, Palencia, Salamanca, Segovia, Soria, Valladolid, Zamora and León, all of which conjure up images of a bygone time where castles, knights and sparse plains dominated the landscapes.
But all is not well in this autonomous community as the province of León wants to break away from the Castilla part of Castilla Y León and become Spain’s 18th region, in what the Spanish press have dubbed ‘Lexit’, a combo of León and Exit.
Political party The Leonese People's Union (UPL) on Wednesday proposed in the regional parliament that León, Zamora and Salamanca become an independent autonomous community called León, a motion supported by the Socialists but rejected by right-wing parties PP and Vox.
As a poll carried out by Electomanía reflects, Leonese people are the Spaniards that feel less identified by their autonomous region.
Un día más recordando que León,Zamora y Salamanca no tienen sentimiento identitario hacia CyL. Una encuesta privada #Lexit pic.twitter.com/1l5b2JaYTi
— Rober (@Robercc41) June 28, 2024
The Kingdom of León, which encompassed the provinces of León, Zamora and Salamanca, did exist from 910 to 1833, up until when the modern Spanish territorial demarcation was defined and divided this historic territory into three provinces.
READ ALSO: Moving to Spain - Which city in Castilla y León is the best?
There have been calls for independence for León for some forty years, with nostalgia and the sense that the provinces that make up Castilla are holding León back due to their deindustrialisation and crucially depopulation, as this part is the country is very much what’s known as 'Empty Spain'.
Whether this ‘Lexit’ actually comes to fruition is unlikely, but it does serve as evidence that apart from the Basque and Catalan independence pushes to break away from Spain, there are other corners of the country that want greater autonomy.
In fact, the crime-riddled Andalusian city of La Línea de la Concepción right next to Gibraltar, and the vastly underpopulated Aragonese province of Teruel have also in recent years suggested gaining independence from their autonomous communities to better deal with their problems.
READ MORE:
- 'Easiest way to make a living': Southern Spain struggles to keep youth out of drug gangs
- How ‘Empty Spain’ is now a political party
On another note, last January Spanish Labour Minister Yolanda Díaz said her ministry would soon reduce the working week by two and a half hours (half an hour less a day), a decision aimed at improving the work-life balance of 12 million employees across the country.
The plan is for it to go from the current 40 hours per week to 38.5 hours by September 2024 when the legislation is expected to be approved, and 37.5 hours at the start of 2025.
Spain has a serious problem with unpaid extra work hours, especially in the private sector, so the Spanish Labour Ministry wants to ensure unions and the Spanish Confederation of Business Organizations (CEOE) actually stick to the new rules with more inspections and tighter fines.
Díaz has accused CEOE of kicking the can down the road by not presenting any proposal to the workday reduction over the past six months.
And this may come as no surprise, given that most business associations in Spain have opposed the measure, from stressing how much it will cost the country economically (SMEs will reportedly lose €42 billion) to saying businesses may close down and jobs lost.
🎧El economista, @bosca_e, sobre la reducción de la jornada laboral👇
— Herrera en COPE (@HerreraenCOPE) June 26, 2024
🗣"A medio y largo plazo, esto no se sostiene en una economía de mercado. Está basado en una falacia. El intentar reducir las horas para repartir el empleo no funciona"https://t.co/kAid9UhVm9 pic.twitter.com/7NfPWJYDWa
Spanish economist José Emilio Boscá described another reason for the work reduction - spreading out the work among more people - as a "fallacy" that won't work, and argued that in regions such as the Basque Country where high productivity levels have been reached, shorter work days have been agreed to as a result, but doing so in unproductive regions has never been tested yet.
Furthermore, in a country where hours behind the desk have always tended to count more than productivity, and where legislation that’s rolled out doesn’t always get properly implemented in practice, it’s hard to believe that all workers will be able to clock off 30 minutes earlier soon.
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