The city council group of Vox in Zaragoza submitted a motion to the culture committee on 20 October 2026 to replace the Jota performed since 2022 at the official Pregón of the Fiestas del Pilar Jota S'ha feito de nuey to be replaced in future by rotating pieces. The party group’s spokesperson, David Flores, justified this by saying that there were many Jotas that represented Zaragoza equally well, and also stated that nobody in the city spoke fabla.
The Ayuntamiento de Zaragoza by contrast, cites a municipal public consultation from 2023 that supported including S'ha feito de nuey in the official programme. In a statement about the Pregón on 10 October 2026, the city confirmed that this year’s opening featured both S'ha feito de nuey and the Canto a la Libertad were played. The administration therefore sees no reason for short-term changes.
The motion has revived a fundamental debate about representation, cultural memory and the treatment of regional languages. S'ha feito de nuey, a Jota by the musician from Huesca Pepe Lera, is sung in the Aragonese language (fabla) and has become a regular, symbolic part of the Pregón in recent years. The Canto a la Libertad by José Antonio Labordeta has long served as the defining finale to the opening. Both pieces are regarded across party lines in Zaragoza as central to local identity, albeit with different emphases.
Vox is now calling for a new, broader public consultation with several options and a regular rotation of the repertoire. The city council points to the existing mandate from the 2023 consultation and to the broad acceptance of the current order in the festival protocol. No formal decision on the next steps had been made by 22 October 2026.
No new data on the number of fabla speakers in Zaragoza were presented at the committee meeting. None of the party groups presented reliable, up-to-date language statistics. Whatever happens next, the episode shows how quickly local festival traditions can become a battleground for political disputes over language and cultural identity—and how much the Fiestas del Pilar extend beyond celebration alone.
Editor: Mira Cadena (Article created with AI assistance).