The Spanish government challenges the agreement between the PP and Vox that prevents Muslim prayers in sports centres in Jumilla
The Spanish government, led by Pedro Sánchez, has challenged the agreement between the Popular Party (PP) and Vox, opposition parties to the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE)-led executive, which prevents Muslim prayers in sports centres in Jumilla, in the region of Murcia.
The government has thus filed a request with the Jumilla City Council to annul the agreement between the PP and Vox on the use of municipal sports facilities, which prevents their use for events organised by the local Muslim community, on the grounds that it violates religious freedom.
According to sources within the Executive, the request, presented by the Government delegate and coordinated with the Ministries of Justice and Territorial Policy, maintains that the regulations allow the use of the sports centre for socio-cultural activities, and therefore considers that ‘the objective reasons put forward are not valid’.
This challenge has been brought on the grounds that the action taken by the PP and Vox is contrary to the fundamental right to religious freedom, in this case of the Muslim community residing in the region of Murcia, and in particular in Jumilla.
Furthermore, it takes into account that Muslim prayers have been carried out in Spain for decades in a normalised manner.
‘In the face of the extremist drift of the PP-Vox, we defend the Constitution, rights and religious freedom. We will stop their ultra-right measures, as we did with the obstacles to abortion in Castile and León and censorship in Murcia,’ said Justice Minister Félix Bolaños on social media.
Frente a la deriva extremista de PPVox, defendemos la Constitución, los derechos y la libertad religiosa.
— Félix Bolaños (@felixbolanosg) August 11, 2025
Frenaremos sus medidas ultras, como hicimos ante trabas al aborto en CyL o la censura en Murcia.https://t.co/CTelZESDPX
The mayor of Jumilla, Severa González, announced that she will seek new public spaces for Muslim celebrations after they were banned from sports facilities. The PP mayor has been forced to negotiate with Muslims for other public spaces to pray in due to popular pressure and criticism.
This shift to the right has a lot to do with the more anti-immigration stance of more radical parties such as Vox, which may have dragged the PP along as a political partner in certain areas such as Murcia.
Vox defended the ban on Muslim celebrations in public spaces. ‘We must protect public spaces from practices that are alien to our culture and our way of life,’ said Vox leader Santiago Abascal.
Criticism of the measure defended by the PP and Vox was swift. The Spanish Federation of Islamic Religious Entities (FEERI) considered the institutional ban on Islamic worship in Jumilla to be ‘an attack on religious freedom and cultural diversity in Spain’. Meanwhile, the Islamic Commission of Spain believes that ‘the measure to limit the use of public spaces to prevent the Muslim community from holding religious events would, if it were to go ahead, constitute a serious violation of the Spanish Constitution (which in Article 16 recognises and protects religious freedom as a fundamental right) and of the Organic Law on Religious Freedom’.
