Ceuta includes Islamic celebrations in official holidays calendar

The Regional Minister of Finance, in Ceuta, Kissy Chandiramani (PP), confirmed this Monday at a press conference that the nine deputies of the Popular Party in the Assembly will vote in favor of the calendar proposal’s amendment to include the Islamic festivals in the non-working days in Cueta city.

The work calendar of Ceuta will include from 2022, “continuously”, the two main annual festivals of the Muslim community, which presents 50 percent of the city’s local population, Eid Al Adha and the end of Ramadan (Eid Al Fitr).

“The principles of this new model will come to strengthen the multicultural, diverse and inclusive Ceuta in which all Ceuta believe and will guarantee that every year Holy Thursday, Kings, San Antonio, the Virgin of Africa and the two Islamic main festivities are non-working days,” explained the Popular party (PP), according to Europa Press.

Vox, a Spanish right party, opposed the amendment, saying that “putting a holiday that does not belong to our tradition, or to our culture, to one that does find an indisputable setting in Western and Ceuta culture such as the feast of San Daniel.”

The PP proposal “is incomprehensible for a Spanish and European city,” said the party according to Europa Press.

Vox now advocates after supporting 2019 and 2020 the change of the current model. It is one of many symptoms of the radicalization that Vox revealed in recent months amid the debates that mounted in the Ceuta Assembly, as they accused the PP party of subjecting Ceuta to Moroccanization for 20 years, according to local newspapers.

In Ceuta, Muslims are a majority, with 85,000 inhabitants, they already account for almost half of the population.

It has been ten years since Aid el Kebir was included in the work calendars of Ceuta and Melilla, a decision supported at the time by all the political forces – Vox lacked representation – and applauded by the local press.