The Andalusian Government Council approved this Tuesday a direct subsidy of 600,000 euros, “of an exceptional nature”, to finance part of the expenses of the II International Congress of Brotherhoods and Popular Piety that will be held in Seville during the December long weekend, and whose The summit event will be the great procession of the great brotherhoods of Holy Week in this city, on the 8th.
The 600,000 euros come from “various remnants” of the budget of the Ministry of Culture and Sports that Patricia del Pozo’s department has left unspent at the end of the year, and which are now destined to subsidize the brotherly macro event, this department confirms, that they have not clarified what they have stopped spending that money on and what areas have been affected by these “surplus” items that now end up in the Council’s coffers. of Brotherhoods of Seville.
This subsidy from the Government of Juan Manuel Moreno is part of the collaboration agreement signed between the Ministry of Culture and the General Council of Brotherhoods and Brotherhoods of Seville, which organizes the macro-event. The City Council of the capital of Seville, in the hands of the popular mayor José Luis Sanz, has also provided an injection of 2.45 million euros for the security device of the great procession, which will have an unprecedented deployment throughout the city.
Holy Week in Seville is celebrated in spring and is one of the tourist peaks of the year, generating income of around 500 million euros in visits. The Archbishop’s Palace of the Andalusian capital is the one who authorizes the processions – more than fifty in the last three months – and is the one who has allowed this brotherhood macro-congress in the middle of winter, between December 4 and 8, coinciding with a festive long weekend that It usually fills the city with tourists, and it coincides with the lighting of the Christmas lights.
The event is unprecedented even for a city as accustomed to popular excesses as Seville. Eight religious images will participate in the grand procession, among them those that arouse the most devotion during Holy Week: the Esperanza Macarena, the Esperanza de Triana, the Jesus of the Great Power and the Christ of Expiration (the Puppy).
The financing provided by the Andalusian Executive is relative, if it is taken into account that just by renting the chairs installed on the public roads of Seville to watch the processions of the steps, the Council of Brotherhoods will be able to earn more than 750,000 euros. On the other hand, from another perspective, 600,000 euros at a time is half of the Andalusian Government’s annual budget for Historical Memory policies, practically frozen since the PP ordered the San Telmo Palace, and which in 2025 amounts to 1.2 million euros.
The brotherhoods of the Andalusian capital are financed, mainly, through the fees paid by their brothers, but also from the Council of Brotherhoods. The entity that organizes the Seville magna charges 35 euros for each seat in the official race, which runs through some of the most significant streets in the city center, closed expressly for this event: from the Cathedral to the Triana Bridge, passing through Avenida de la Constitución, Almirante Lobo and Paseo de Colón, next to the river.
Along with the Holy Week images, three virgins from the province of Seville will also procession – the Virgin of Valme, of two Sisters; the Virgin of Setefilla, from Lora del Río; and the Virgin of Consolación, from Utrera; in addition to the Virgin of the Kings, patron saint of the archdiocese of Seville.
The brotherhood macro-event, which has revolutionized the city for months, also has four exhibitions, one of them in the Cathedral, two in the Santa Clara Convent, and another in the Cajasol Foundation.
The Seville City Council has been dealing with the Council of Brotherhoods, because the placement of Christmas lighting in the streets through which the magna will process made it difficult for the images to pass through. The mayor also forced the Council to modify the original design of the procession route for security reasons, in anticipation of the crowds that will gather to see the processions and the visits that will come from all over the country.
The exceptional subsidy that the Andalusian Executive authorized this Tuesday for the brotherhoods of Seville appeared on the agenda of the Government Council, although the Office of the Spokesperson of the Board has not issued any statement nor has it reported in the subsequent appearance before the press.
The Ministry of Finance has confirmed to this newspaper that the aid of 600,000 euros arises from applying an exception to article 124.4 of the Public Finance Law of Andalusia, which says: “In subsidies whose justification is made after collection thereof , an amount greater than 50% of the subsidy cannot be paid to the beneficiary person or entity without prior justification of previous payments, except in the cases “cases in which the amount of those is equal to or less than 6,000 euros.”
“Pope Francis expressly asked us to be close to the brotherhoods and brotherhoods, recognizing their very important contribution to the life of the Church,” says the Archbishop of Seville, José Ángel Meneses, on the website that includes the route of the brotherhood summit.
Last spring, the president of the Board, Juan Manuel Moreno, visited the Pope in the Vatican, shortly before Holy Week, and invited Francisco to visit Andalusia. The autonomous community has more than 2,500 brotherhoods with more than 600,000 brothers, according to data from the Board.
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