GENEVA

The Spanish government has formally requested the Jumilla City Council in Murcia to revoke an agreement between the main opposition conservative People's Party (PP) and the far-right Vox party that prohibits religious events in municipal sports centers, arguing that it violates religious freedom, the local media reported on Monday.

The council has already received the request, the government delegate in the region of Murcia, Maria Dolores Guevara, said at a press conference, according to RTVE, adding that it has one month to respond.

The measure stems from a PP initiative that modified an earlier Vox motion explicitly seeking to ban Islamic celebrations in the municipality of about 27,000 residents, which has a large Muslim community.

Executive sources told RTVE that the decision "arbitrarily restricted" a celebration that had long taken place, violating the Muslim community's right to religious freedom by local and regional governments of the right and the extreme right.

They added that the regulations already allow the sports center's use for sociocultural activities and that "the true discriminatory intention of the agreement can be seen both in the original text and in the statements of the Vox spokesperson, who has boasted of banning Muslim holidays."

In its written request, the government argued that the agreement "incurs an abuse of power, using municipal authority to prevent Muslim religious celebrations in an improper and deviant manner."

"Although it apparently appears to regulate the use of municipal sports facilities, this formal appearance clearly conceals a violation of the fundamental right to religious freedom," it added.

It said the exclusion of religious acts "without proving disturbance of public order nor conflict of use" is unjustified and demands that the local corporation revoke the measure.