Empty Spain
Empty Spain, or España Vaciada in Spanish, refers to the severe and prolonged depopulation of rural inland regions comprising about 21% of Spain's territory, where over 2,800 municipalities have experienced significant population declines due to emigration, aging demographics, and economic stagnation.[1][2] This crisis, accelerating since the mid-20th century amid industrialization and urbanization, has led to the closure of essential services like schools and hospitals in low-density areas, exacerbating a vicious cycle of out-migration primarily to coastal and metropolitan hubs such as Madrid and Barcelona.[3][4] Between 2000 and 2020, while Spain's overall population grew by 17.2%, 63% of its municipalities—concentrated in these emptied zones—saw net losses, with some rural towns shrinking to a third of their historical populations and facing projected further declines of over half a million inhabitants in the coming decades.[4][5][6] The issue crystallized into a grassroots political movement in 2019, uniting local associations under the España Vaciada platform to demand targeted investments in connectivity, job creation, and demographic incentives, challenging traditional parties' urban-centric policies and inspiring regional parties like Teruel Existe.[7][8][9] Key characteristics include heightened vulnerability to globalization, climate impacts, and service deserts, with advocates emphasizing causal factors like centralized governance failures over vague equity narratives, though mainstream analyses often underplay structural economic shifts in agriculture and industry.[1][2]Historical Context
The Depopulation Crisis
Spain's depopulation crisis, centered in the rural interior regions collectively termed "Empty Spain," manifests as sustained population decline in over 77 percent of municipalities since 2001, driven primarily by net out-migration and negative natural population growth.[10] These areas, encompassing provinces in Castile and León, Aragon, and Extremadura, have seen rural populations shrink due to the exodus of young residents to urban and coastal hubs offering superior employment and services.[11] For instance, the province of Zamora experienced a population drop exceeding 30 percent in recent decades, exemplifying the broader trend where approximately half of Spain's towns continue to lose inhabitants, placing many at risk of functional extinction through dwindling service viability.[12][13] The crisis stems from intertwined demographic and economic factors, including a national fertility rate of about 1.2 children per woman—well below the 2.1 replacement level—resulting in aging populations where deaths outpace births, particularly in sparsely populated locales.[14] Rural depopulation accelerates as economic opportunities in agriculture and traditional industries wane, prompting selective out-migration of working-age individuals, especially youth and women, who seek education, jobs, and amenities unavailable locally.[15][16] This migration pattern, rooted in post-World War II industrialization and urbanization, has concentrated 90 percent of Spain's population in just 30 percent of its territory, leaving vast inland expanses with densities below 10 inhabitants per square kilometer.[12] Compounding these dynamics, the absence of infrastructure investments and public services in low-density areas fosters a vicious cycle: declining populations lead to school and healthcare closures, further deterring residency and investment.[17] Official projections indicate that while Spain's overall rural population may edge toward 8.2 million by 2040, at least half of the nation's provinces—predominantly in the northwest and interior—will register continued rural declines, underscoring the crisis's persistence absent targeted interventions.[18] This uneven demographic distribution not only strains remaining communities through overburdened elderly care but also poses challenges to national cohesion and resource allocation.[19]Roots of the Political Movement
The political movement addressing Spain's depopulation crisis originated from grassroots citizen platforms in sparsely populated inland provinces, responding to long-term neglect of rural infrastructure and services. Pioneering efforts include Teruel Existe, a citizen initiative launched in the province of Teruel to demand equitable resource allocation and halt demographic decline.[20] Similar local associations, such as Soria ¡Ya!, formed in subsequent years to advocate for regional development amid accelerating population loss exacerbated by the 2008 economic downturn.[21] These fragmented initiatives unified under the España Vaciada banner in early 2019, creating a national platform to amplify rural grievances beyond provincial boundaries.[7] The movement's pivotal moment arrived with the Revuelta de la España Vaciada, a series of protests culminating in a major demonstration in Madrid on 31 March 2019, where thousands from depopulated areas marched against urban-centric policies, highlighting demands for improved connectivity, healthcare, and economic incentives.[22][23] Electoral validation followed in the November 2019 general elections, when Teruel Existe secured a seat in the Congress of Deputies with 19,428 votes (0.08% nationally), proving the electoral potential of depopulation-focused candidacies and spurring broader political organization.[9] This success, rooted in non-partisan civil society mobilization rather than traditional ideological divides, propelled España Vaciada toward formal party registration on 30 September 2021, marking its transition from protest to structured political entity.[21]Ideology and Objectives
Core Policy Demands
The Empty Spain movement, encompassing various platforms and the political initiative España Vaciada, prioritizes policies aimed at reversing rural depopulation through targeted interventions in infrastructure, services, and economic incentives. A central demand is the allocation of at least 1% of Spain's annual gross domestic product—approximately €14 billion as of 2021 estimates—to combat depopulation, funding improvements in connectivity, roads, and digital infrastructure to bridge the rural-urban gap.[24] Advocates argue that chronic underinvestment in these areas perpetuates outmigration, as rural municipalities often lose services like schools and hospitals once population falls below thresholds such as 5,000 residents, exacerbating a vicious cycle of abandonment.[25] Fiscal and employment reforms form another pillar, including a proposed 60% reduction in personal income tax (IRPF) for individuals residing in severely depopulated zones to incentivize relocation and business creation.[26] Complementary measures involve subsidies for housing, job creation in non-agricultural sectors, and labor mobility programs to diversify rural economies beyond primary activities, which currently dominate but offer limited employment stability.[8] These proposals seek to counter the economic centralization that funnels resources toward urban centers like Madrid and Barcelona, where over 80% of public investment concentrates despite rural areas comprising 70% of Spain's territory.[27] Decentralization efforts emphasize relocating public administrations and agencies to inland provinces, arguing that such moves would anchor employment and private investment; for instance, shifting non-essential ministries could sustain 10,000–20,000 jobs per region while reducing urban congestion.[27] The movement also calls for a national pact to guarantee minimum public services—health clinics, broadband, and education—irrespective of population density, critiquing current cost-based rationing as discriminatory against low-density areas.[28] Platforms like Revuelta de la España Vaciada further demand enhanced territorial representation, such as reserved parliamentary seats for depopulated districts, to amplify rural voices in policymaking.[29]Stance on Rural-Urban Divide
The Empty Spain movement characterizes the rural-urban divide as a policy-induced disparity rather than an inevitable outcome of modernization, attributing rural depopulation to decades of centralized decision-making that favors metropolitan areas like Madrid and Barcelona at the expense of inland provinces. This perspective, articulated in protests such as the 2019 "Revolt of Empty Spain," highlights how urban-centric infrastructure investments and service allocations have led to closures of rural schools, post offices, and medical facilities, accelerating out-migration particularly among the youth.[30][31] Advocates contend that this divide manifests in stark demographic imbalances, with rural territories encompassing over 80% of Spain's landmass but housing less than 20% of the population as of 2021, a trend intensified by limited economic opportunities and inadequate public transport links to urban hubs. They criticize mainstream parties for perpetuating urban hegemony through electoral systems that underrepresent sparsely populated regions, thereby marginalizing rural voices in national policy formulation.[19][21] The movement's stance rejects narratives portraying rural Spain as obsolete or peripheral, instead emphasizing its foundational role in national agriculture, which contributes approximately 2.5% to GDP and employs over 700,000 people as of 2022, alongside cultural heritage tied to traditional landscapes. It frames the divide as eroding social cohesion, with rural areas experiencing higher rates of aging populations—over 40% above 65 in some provinces—and lower life expectancy compared to urban counterparts due to service deficits.[12][8] In response, Empty Spain proponents call for bridging the divide through targeted interventions that decentralize authority, such as enhanced fiscal autonomy for rural municipalities and incentives to retain talent, positioning rural revitalization as essential to countering broader national challenges like food security and environmental stewardship. This view has gained traction amid electoral shifts, where depopulated areas showed increased support for non-traditional parties in regional votes, signaling discontent with urban-dominated governance.[9][10]Organizational Framework
Member and Affiliated Parties
The Federación de Partidos de la España Vaciada, established on November 27, 2022, unites regional political platforms primarily from depopulated provinces to advocate for territorial equity and combat rural exodus.[32] Its core members include Teruel Existe, a Teruel-based group founded in 2018 that secured a congressional seat in the November 2019 general elections by garnering 19,683 votes (44.01% in the province); Soria ¡Ya!, established in 2019 to represent Soria's interests and which obtained 11,976 votes (approximately 30% locally) in the same 2019 elections; Aragón Existe, focused on Aragon's rural areas and formalized as a party in November 2022; Cuenca Ahora (also known as Cuenca Despierta in some contexts), addressing Cuenca's depopulation challenges; and Jaén Merece Más, centered on Jaén province's economic and demographic decline.[32][33][34] España Vaciada itself serves as the national coordinating entity within the federation, registered as a political party with Spain's Ministry of the Interior on September 30, 2021, and acts as a platform for integrating these provincial voices into a unified national strategy.[34] Affiliated groups occasionally join electoral coalitions, such as the EXISTE alliance formed in April 2024 for the European Parliament elections, which included Teruel Existe, Soria ¡Ya!, and others to amplify representation for underrepresented territories, though it secured only around 40,000 votes nationwide.[35][36] These affiliations emphasize municipalist and regional autonomy, often prioritizing local mayors and grassroots demands over centralized party structures.[37]| Party/Platform | Primary Region | Key Focus |
|---|---|---|
| Teruel Existe | Teruel | Infrastructure investment and demographic retention; achieved parliamentary breakthrough in 2019.[33] |
| Soria ¡Ya! | Soria | Public services equity and anti-depopulation policies; strong local electoral showings.[32] |
| Aragón Existe | Aragon | Regional territorial balance; recently formalized for national engagement.[34] |
| Cuenca Ahora | Cuenca | Rural revitalization and service access.[32] |
| Jaén Merece Más | Jaén | Agricultural sustainability and population stabilization.[32] |
Leadership and Decision-Making
The Empty Spain movement operates through a federated structure comprising local platforms, civic associations, and regional parties, with leadership coordinated at the national level to advocate for rural depopulation issues. Tomás Guitarte, founder and leader of Teruel Existe, serves as the primary spokesperson for the Coordinadora Ejecutiva de la Federación de Partidos de la España Vaciada, a role he assumed following the group's electoral breakthroughs in 2019.[40] Guitarte's influence stems from Teruel Existe's success in securing parliamentary representation, which positioned it as a model for the broader coalition, emphasizing pragmatic territorial equity demands over ideological divides.[41] Decision-making within the movement relies on consensus-driven assemblies involving representatives from over 70 collectives across 28 provinces, as formalized during the III Asamblea General in Priego, Cuenca, on September 19, 2021, where participants approved the creation of a unified political instrument for elections.[41] This process prioritizes broad agreement among member entities to maintain unity, avoiding top-down impositions that could alienate regional autonomy. In November 2022, the group professionalized its framework by establishing a dual structure: a national political party alongside a federation to integrate local brands such as Soria ¡Ya! and Jaén Merece Más, enabling streamlined strategic coordination for the 2023 municipal, regional, and general elections.[42] The executive committee, or Executiva, introduced in this reorganization, handles operational decisions, including candidate selection and policy prioritization, while deferring major strategic shifts to plenary sessions of affiliated platforms.[42] This hybrid model balances grassroots input with efficiency, as evidenced by the federation's statutes, which allow for electoral coalitions with aligned parties to amplify rural voices in national legislatures.[43] Regional leaders, such as Cristina Blanco in Valladolid, exemplify localized decision-making, where provincial coordinators adapt national directives to specific depopulation challenges.[44] Overall, the approach fosters adaptability but has faced critiques for potential fragmentation if consensus proves elusive among ideologically diverse affiliates.[45]Electoral Engagements
Regional and Municipal Elections
In regional elections, parties associated with the España Vaciada movement have leveraged localized support in low-population provinces to secure parliamentary representation, often acting as kingmakers in fragmented assemblies. Soria ¡Ya!, contesting the February 13, 2022, elections to the Cortes of Castilla y León, won 3 procurators with 18,390 votes (1.53% regionally but 42.57% in Soria province), marking a breakthrough for depopulation-focused platforms in that assembly.[46] Teruel Existe achieved similar success in the May 28, 2023, elections to the Cortes of Aragón, obtaining 3 seats as listed in official results, reflecting strong provincial backing amid broader turnout declines in rural areas.[47] Municipal elections have provided the movement's strongest foothold, with affiliated lists emphasizing infrastructure and anti-depopulation measures to capture mayoralties and council seats in small towns. In the 2023 municipal polls held concurrently with regional votes, Teruel Existe claimed 14 mayoralties and 111 councilors across Teruel province municipalities, establishing governance in rural locales previously dominated by national parties.[48] Other España Vaciada-linked candidacies, such as in Burgos province's Villaflores, secured outright victories with 44.54% of votes and 3 council seats, while in Huesca, they gained 9 councilors across 8 municipalities with potential to lead 2 town halls.[49] Soria ¡Ya! opted not to field municipal candidates in 2023 due to insufficient vetted personnel, prioritizing regional influence instead.[50] These outcomes underscore the movement's efficacy at the local level, where voter turnout in depopulated zones favors issue-specific appeals over national platforms, though absolute gains remain modest given sparse populations.[51]National Parliamentary Elections
In the November 10, 2019, general elections, Teruel Existe, a pioneer platform within the España Vaciada movement, secured one seat in the Congress of Deputies from the province of Teruel, marking the first national parliamentary representation for rural depopulation-focused parties. The party received 30,492 votes, equivalent to 19.82% of the valid votes in Teruel—a low-population province allocating three seats—allowing it to capture the third position under the D'Hondt method after the Partido Popular (PP) and Partido Socialista Obrero Español (PSOE). This breakthrough, led by candidate Tomás Guitarte, stemmed from targeted mobilization against chronic neglect of inland areas, with turnout in Teruel at 74.5%. Teruel Existe's parliamentary presence influenced policy negotiations, as it abstained in the initial investiture votes for PSOE leader Pedro Sánchez but later supported his minority government in January 2020 in exchange for specific commitments, including infrastructure investments and a demographic challenge fund allocated €140 million initially for rural revitalization. However, the platform's national impact remained limited, with no additional seats won elsewhere despite sympathy in provinces like Soria, Cuenca, and Zamora, where similar groups garnered under 5% of votes without breaching representation thresholds. Affiliated movements, such as Soria ¡Ya!, echoed this pattern but failed to translate local activism into congressional gains due to Spain's electoral system's bias toward larger parties in small constituencies. The July 23, 2023, elections represented a setback, as Teruel Existe lost its sole seat, obtaining only 11,848 votes (7.66%) in Teruel, insufficient against PP's 25.8% and PSOE's 23.1%, with the third seat going to Vox amid heightened national polarization. España Vaciada, formalized as a national party in 2021, contested in multiple depopulated provinces but secured no congressional seats, averaging below 3% regionally; for instance, in Soria, allied lists polled 4.2% without representation. Factors included voter fragmentation, major parties' absorption of rural grievances—PP emphasizing agrarian aid, PSOE demographic pacts—and the D'Hondt system's penalty for non-first-placed votes in three-seat districts. No España Vaciada-affiliated deputies sit in the current Congress as of 2025, though movement leaders continue lobbying via non-legislative channels.[52][53][54]Performance Evaluation
Key Electoral Outcomes
In the November 2019 Spanish general election, Teruel Existe, a pioneer platform addressing rural depopulation in the province of Teruel, secured one seat in the Congress of Deputies by obtaining 26,977 votes, equivalent to 35.08% of the valid votes in the single-member Teruel constituency. This outcome represented the first national parliamentary representation for a party explicitly focused on "Empty Spain" issues, displacing the People's Party (PP) from its traditional third position in the three-seat district and highlighting voter frustration with urban-centric policies.[55] Building on this precedent, Soria Ya achieved a similar breakthrough in the July 2023 general election, winning one congressional seat in the Soria constituency with 15,874 votes (20.21% of the vote share) in the three-seat district.[56] This success came amid broader rural discontent, as Soria Ya outperformed national parties like Unidas Podemos in local preferences, though the platform's narrow margin underscored the fragility of such gains under Spain's electoral system favoring larger parties in small provinces.[54] Conversely, the España Vaciada party, formalized in 2021 as a broader coalition vehicle for the movement, failed to secure any congressional seats in the 2023 general election despite contesting ten depopulated provinces including Soria, Teruel, Cuenca, and Zamora.[57] The platform garnered under 50,000 votes nationwide, reflecting a decline from affiliated groups' peaks and challenges posed by the 3% provincial threshold and D'Hondt method, which penalized fragmented rural votes.[58] Teruel Existe itself lost its seat in 2023, polling 11,292 votes (14.96%) as part of the "Existe" alliance, overtaken by rising support for Vox in the constituency.[59] At the subnational level, Empty Spain platforms demonstrated localized strength in the May 2023 municipal elections, where independent lists under banners like España Vaciada won outright majorities in several small depopulated municipalities, such as Puente del Congosto (Salamanca province, 100% of seats with near-unanimous support) and Villaflores (Ávila province, 44.54% of votes securing control).[60][61] Across 13 provinces, these candidacies collectively secured dozens of council seats in rural councils under 20,000 inhabitants, often exceeding 30% vote shares in areas like the Cuenca highlands and Palencia south, though total representation remained under 200 councilors amid competition from mainstream parties.[62]| Election | Platform/Party | Key Result | Votes/Seats | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 General (Teruel) | Teruel Existe | 1 Congress seat | 26,977 votes (35.08%) | |
| 2023 General (Soria) | Soria Ya | 1 Congress seat | 15,874 votes (20.21%) | [56] |
| 2023 General (Nationwide) | España Vaciada | 0 seats | <50,000 votes total | [58] |
| 2023 Municipal (Select locales) | España Vaciada lists | Multiple mayoralties | e.g., Puente del Congosto: ~100% seats | [60] |