The new law on divorce has led to an exponential growth of family breakdown in Spain: in the first year of its application (July 2005-July 2006) 163,444 divorces have been registered. The finding emerges from the survey conducted by Spain’s Institute of Family Policy (IFP) and is reported by the Fides international press agency. According to IFP President Eduardo Hertfelder, “the new law has led to an explosion in the breakdown of marriages” due to the “elimination of the probationary period of separation and the unilateral nature of the decision to divorce”, given that the decision of only one of the two spouses is now enough to obtain a divorce. So the new law has rapidly channelled latent conflicts within the family towards definitive breakdown. According to the data published in the survey, ever since the so-called “express law” came into force, divorces have far outstripped separations. “The new law was given to us as a way of speeding up the legal process, but it’s one thing to speed things up and quite another to create mechanisms that actually cause a higher number of divorces”, said Hertfelder. When the previous law was in force, 20% of spouses became reconciled in the period dedicated to reflection. “This new law of express divorce gives no chance for reconciliation; it provokes final family breakdown and augments family conflict”, remarked Hertfelder. The IFP report says that family breakdown has been transformed into the main problem of Spanish families. Spain is now one of the countries of the European Union with the highest number of divorces, after the UK, France and Germany. In response to this situation, the IFP proposes various measures, including: the reform of the law of extension of divorce of 2005; the launch of a national plan for young couples; the creation of a network of family counselling centres; the development of awareness-raising campaigns on the importance of marriage and the family; the adoption of an integral plan of support to the family 2007-2010; and the preparation of a guide on assistance to the family.
