"I do not believe in the current marriage; I do not acquire the commitment with another, but with myself". Why weddings fall and fall in Spain

• Find a partner at 30 years old.

  The age of the requirement

• This is how you link (in person) in 2022

• It doesn't depend on you and you can't handle everything.

  And besides, you suffer more.

  Love in the 21st century, according to Tamara Tenenbaum

"I think there are very few people who see

as the

it should be, from my point of view. In fact, I think a lot of people have

today just because

I see

who have been married for 50 years and in love, with its ups and downs, and their

has a

that doesn't exist today. So... why waste my time getting married or not getting married?

of marriage in the society we live in, nor even in the commitment with another person.

I acquire the

I know I'm not going to fail or if I fail... nothing happens".

Ruth, thirty-something, from Madrid, immersed in the world of music and communication, has very solid beliefs about reality and very liquid ideas about relationships, as conceived by the sociologist Zygmunt Bauman (1925-2017

.

For him, our time would be characterized by relationships lacking in warmth, solidity and depth, they would be

,

,

and

in the bond.

In the words of Bauman himself ('Liquid love. On the fragility of human ties', ed. Paidós), people of this time live

but at the same time they live "suspicious of that 'being related' and, especially, of being related 'seriously', or, worse still, 'forever', because they fear that such a state could carry burdens on them and cause

tensions

neither they feel they can't stand or don't want to stand, and because of that, they can seriously limit the freedom they need to… yes, you guessed it, relate!"

If Bauman does not manage to convince us enough of how the love affair has changed, here comes an ambitious study carried out by the

directed by the professor of Sociology

and sponsored by the

entitled 'Couples and breakups in present-day Spain.

of

is taking place

, a weakening of the traditional romantic model", although certain aspects of the 'old' romantic model still survive, we read in it.

Other research conclusions point to the fact that new sentimental relationships are fraught with

that they are

but

because of the dictates of

We can't find the day to get married

So much pleasure instantly dissuades us from carrying the uncertainty of the future, something that, related to a good handful of economic reasons that we will

see below, makes Spaniards

later

women

, on average,

and men

at

In fact, in the last decade, the average age of the contracting parties has risen by four years.

And the link delay is getting worse.

Delaying and delaying again has an influence on the number of weddings, since many of the ones that take place are left for later, in a kind of procrastination limbo, come on.

If we add to this the negative expectation that tarnishes the coexistence plan, very much in tune with what Zygmunt Bauman described, turn it off and let's go.

Today, the average duration of marriages in Spain is 16.8 years, according to the National Institute of Statistics (INE).

Very depress everything.

300% fewer weddings than 50 years ago

This new way of living ourselves and others is one of the causes that have oppressed the corset of different-sex

in Spain for years, and that according to data from

a study by the Fundación de Cajas of Savings (Funcas), fell from the maximum of

to the minimum of

which represents a fall of more than 300% in less than 50 years.

It is true that 2021 and 2022 have experienced significant increases compared to that last figure, a victim of the covid, but it is also true that many of today's weddings are still part of the shock wave of yesterday's pandemic, where many weddings remained in the gutter waiting for the crane of 'normality'.

But the new way of living love does not say everything, far from it, about the fall in weddings, which by the way affects those celebrated

which today only account for

If there is too much

... Today in Spain you can get married by a mayor, a councilor, a justice of the peace, those in charge of the Civil Registry, the consuls and officials in their charge and even notaries.

Culprits: vulture funds

We all knew that vulture funds were the plague of the economy, but thanks to a study financed by the

and directed by

Professor of Economics at the

we can affirm that they are also involved in the

in Spain.

The main finding of the study is the existence of a

between

and

in Spain.

"In other words, when housing prices increased, marriages decreased and when housing prices fell, there were more marriages," González-Val writes in an article.

This negative relationship (logical, on the other hand), emphasizes the author, was more pronounced "during the years of the housing bubble and at the beginning of the Great Recession."

come into the picture ,

which especially since 2017 have broken into the Spanish

.

"From our perspective, the growing market power of these funds could be generating

on

since the lack of competition would raise housing prices," says the economist.

A wedding: 20,500 euros

The

of

, even

(20,500 euros on average according to Bodas.net), especially if it is synonymous with becoming independent, are not few.

Hence, it is not surprising that

(between 25 and 34 years old)

(study by the Santalucía Institute).

And few are.

More than eight million mileuristas, the vast majority of young people 'of deserving age' find it quite difficult to live on their own, alone or in the company of another (mileurista also, often).

Funcas

agrees with the aforementioned González-Val study on the dependency relationship that links new marriages to the

-they fall in recessive periods and increase in expansionary ones-, but points out that

"the

which according to the Fundación de Cajas de Ahorros is due to reasons such as the

(the fault is always ours, of course. No..., that's a joke), the reduction of institutional incentives to marriage or even its elimination as a condition of certain benefits and social services.

Come on, getting married has ceased to have advantages.

Well, some are left.

Let's see which ones.

The main advantage of getting married: the death (of the other)

people

have the

of being able to file a

if it pays off, a circumstance that occurs if one of the spouses receives no or very low income.

But be careful, because this 'advantage' is not exclusive to those who have joined their interests under a marriage contract.

Single mothers or fathers (including members of a common-law couple) can also do so with their minor children (or older children, if they are legally incapacitated).

Another

for those who have gone through the vicarage or the court (or the town hall, or the notary...) is that of

The general legislation establishes a significant bonus for them exclusively.

Of course, some autonomous communities such as Madrid have equalized the benefits for common-law couples as long as they are properly registered.

More. The

contemplates a

for getting married.

Of course, there is already jurisprudence against this exclusivity.

Recently, a sentence of the Superior Court of Justice of the Region of Murcia has ruled in favor of equalization.

There is also a two-day permit for workers due to "death, accident or serious illness, hospitalization or intervention" of their spouse, which does not happen with those who have not gone through the marriage process.

But more and more companies equate this right in their agreements.

And we come to the key chapter, that of

.

It is true that one does not get married thinking about the day his partner dies, but... The

recognizes

the category of

, with a greater or lesser percentage of inheritance depending on whether there are children, ascendants or collateral relatives of the deceased.

This recognition as a forced heir is not recognized for common-law couples.

But... (there is always a second 'but'), there are already autonomous communities that, without actually equalizing inheritance rights, have taken great steps in this direction.

For example, Catalonia, where depending on certain circumstances, the surviving partner can even receive the entire inheritance.

With regard to the

if you are married it is practically automatic to receive it, with many more conditions and procedures if you are not.

Cultural factors: who cares what I do?

Finally, there are also compelling cultural reasons to park or rule out a wedding.

The

traditionally carried out by the family itself, which previously made a wedding a practically non-negotiable event, has loosened to a great extent.

An

the narrowing of the

, practically circumscribed to the margins of the

the massive abandonment of the countryside in favor of cities where the mechanisms of social control are much more lax... are some of the factors that lead more and more to

without a contract and

, sometimes ad infinitum, the passage through the marriage rite.

As Ruth, the young woman who opened this report with her statements, says, "I am happy with the love of my friends and my family, and when I am intimate with a person I also give them love, but in the matter of the couple I have never had good experiences. So... long live the bachelorhood":

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