Spain
Country in southwestern Europe, on the Iberian Peninsula between the
Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, bounded north by France
and west by Portugal.
Government
The 1978 constitution provides for a hereditary monarch as formal head
of state. The monarch appoints a prime minister, called president
of government, and a council of ministers, all responsible to
the national assembly, Las Cortes Generales. The Cortes consists
of two chambers, the chamber of deputies, with 350 members, and
the senate, with 257. Deputies are elected by universal suffrage
through a system of proportional representation; 208 of the senators
are directly elected to represent the whole country and 49 to
represent the regions. All serve a four-year term.
Spain has developed a form of regional self-government whereby
each of the 50 provinces has its own council (Diputación Provincial)
and civil governor. The devolution process was extended in 1979
when 17 autonomous communities were approved, each with a parliament
elected for a four-year term.
History
Following his victory in the Spanish Civil War (1936-39) Gen Francisco
Franco had become leader of a right- wing military dictatorship
in Spain. Immediately after World War II the fascist Falange (the
only legal party), the army, the Roman Catholic Church, and the
upper classes were united in their support of Franco, because
they were haunted by the spectre of left-wing revolution.
Spain was economically still very weak, as World War II had
inhibited its own reconstruction programme in the wake of the
Civil War. In addition, for some years after 1945, Spain suffered
political isolation. It was not a member of the United Nations,
and in December 1946 the UN recommended the withdrawal of all
embassies from Spain, a decision complied with by most nations.
The plan to restore the monarchy
Anxious to consolidate his internal position, Franco adopted a conciliatory
attitude towards some of his former opponents. In 1947 he announced
that Spain would become a monarchy, with a regency council and
himself as head of state. If the head of state died the regency
council should propose a successor, a king or regent, to be approved
by a two- thirds majority of the Cortes (parliament). A referendum
later that year approved this decision. Prince Juan Carlos, the
son of Don Juan (the latter named by ex-King Alfonso XIII as his
successor) lived most of his early life in Spain, close to Franco.
This implication of an eventual restoration of the Bourbon monarchy
probably consolidated Franco's regime in the country as a whole,
but caused considerable misgivings among a section of the Falange.
On 15 July 1957 the Spanish parliament was officially informed
that the monarchy would be restored in Spain on the death or withdrawal
from power of Franco.
The ending of isolation
By 1948 the Western powers were reexamining their attitude towards
Spain; in the light of the Cold War, Soviet communism was perceived
as a far greater threat than Franco's Spain.
The UN removed the ambassadorial ban on Spain, and in 1952 Spain
joined UNESCO. In 1951 it received a loan from the US Export-
Import Bank, and in 1953, under a ten-year defence agreement signed
with the USA, Spain was to receive arms and economic aid and to
allow the USA the use of naval and air bases in its territory.
This agreement was periodically renewed, with the Spanish government
driving a harder bargain on each occasion.
Until the end of the 1960s it appeared that Spain stood a good
chance of reintegrating itself within the community of Western
European countries and of achieving a smooth political succession.
But both possibilities depended largely on Franco's willingness
and ability to relinquish office and power, and this failed to
happen, except during a few weeks in the summer of 1974 when ill
health obliged him to transfer his functions as chief of state
to Prince Juan Carlos.
Franco's hold weakens
The regime faced numerous problems. The worldwide economic recession
of the mid-1970s exposed the weaknesses of the Spanish economy,
which was also hit when Britain, Spain's major trading partner,
joined the European Community in 1973. Tourism, which had developed
in the 1960s, also saw a decline. The government's emphasis on
its historic links with the Arab nations (dating from the period
of Muslim rule in Spain in the Middle Ages) and with its former
colonies in South America (which it had lost in the early 19th
century) brought few benefits other than cultural ones. At the
same time, soaring domestic inflation politicized large sections
of the hitherto complacent middle class.
The militant Basque separatist movement, ETA (Euskadi ta Askatasuna,
`Basque Homeland and Liberty´) began to wage guerrilla warfare
in the north in the late 1960s, and Catalan nationalism, though
less active, was no less well established. Thus the two economically
most advanced areas of Spain presented the most critical political
problems for Madrid.
Unrest in the universities and among the industrial workers
became endemic from the late 1960s. The number of industrial workers
had grown with the large-scale movement away from the land, and
these workers made numerous attempts to establish authentic trade
unions in opposition to the state-controlled syndicates. Both
students and workers received aid from increasing numbers of priests,
whose actions reflected the dissatisfaction of the new generation
of Spanish clergy with the Roman Catholic Church's traditionally
acquiescent role in Spain; the clergy was also acting in response
to the social teachings of Pope John XXIII and to its fears for
the future after Franco's death.
The assassination, allegedly by members of ETA, of Franco's
vice president, Carrero Blanco, in 1973, and the overthrow of
the friendly regime in Portugal in 1974 presented the government
with new problems. Franco's age and ill health exacerbated the
struggle for power between the anti-monarchical and anti -liberal
old-style Falangists, the more outward-looking members of the
right-wing Roman Catholic organization Opus Dei, and the cautiously
pragmatic politicians represented by the prime minister, Carlos
Arias Navarro.
The return to democracy
In 1975 the death of Gen Franco brought a restoration of the monarchy
(in the person of King Juan Carlos), and the renewal of open political
debate and party activity for the first time since the 1930s.
There followed a slow but steady progress to democratic government.
A more liberal cabinet was formed, but left-wing discontent
continued when the expected amnesty for political prisoners was
not granted. Early in 1976 mass rallies were held, and communist-
and socialist-led groups united in the Democratic Formation. Later,
the Cortes approved bills lifting restrictions on political meetings,
a revised amendment to the Penal Code was passed, and Adolfo Suárez
replaced Navarro as prime minister. A partial amnesty was granted,
and the proposal for an elected two-chamber parliament was approved
by a popular referendum in December 1976.
In February 1977 legislation was enacted legalizing most political
parties, the Communist Party being legalized in April. The National
Movement - Spain's state political party under Franco - was abolished
on 1 April.
In June 1977 the first general elections since 1936 were held.
Pre- election tension had run high in the Basque provinces, with
several people losing their lives in demonstrations and kidnappings.
The centre-left coalition Union of the Democratic Centre (UCD),
headed by Suárez, won 165 of the 350 seats in the Congress of
Deputies, and 105 of the 207 elected seats in the Senate. King
Juan Carlos subsequently nominated a further 41 senators. The
inaugural session of the Cortes was opened by the king on 22 July.
A new constitution was endorsed by referendum in 1978.
Regional demands and the right-wing threat
Spain faced two main internal problems: the demands for independence
by regional extremists and the possibility of a right-wing military
coup. Suárez suddenly resigned in 1981 and was succeeded by his
deputy, Leopoldo Calvo Sotelo. He was immediately confronted with
an attempted army coup in Madrid, while at the same time the military
commander of Valencia declared a state of emergency there and
sent tanks out on the streets. Both uprisings failed, and the
two leaders were tried and imprisoned.
Sotelo's decision to take Spain into the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO) in 1982 was widely criticized, and he was
forced to call a general election in October 1982. The result
was a sweeping victory for the Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE),
led by Felipe Gonzá lez. At the same time ETA had stepped up its
campaign for independence with widespread terrorist activity,
spreading in 1985 to the Mediterranean holiday resorts and threatening
Spain's lucrative tourist industry.
The González administration
The PSOE had fought the 1982 election on a policy of taking Spain out
of NATO and carrying out extensive nationalization. Once in office,
however, González showed himself to be a pragmatist. His nationalization
programme was highly selective, and he left the decision on NATO
to a referendum. In January 1986 Spain became a full member of
the European Community, and in March the referendum showed popular
support for remaining in NATO despite the special conditions attached
to its membership. These included a bilateral treaty with the
USA for the presence of its troops in Spain and for the limited
use of Spanish troops away from Spanish soil.
In the 1986 election González returned for another term as prime
minister. In 1988 Spain, with Portugal, became a member of the
Western European Union. In the 1989 general election the PSOE
won only 175 seats in the 350-member national assembly but retained
power under González, who formed a ` tactical alliance´ with the
Basque and Catalan parties. Major tax reforms were passed in 1991
in an effort to help the nation's struggling economy.
After an unofficial truce, ETA's armed struggle resumed in August
1992. González announced in October 1992 that he would seek a
fourth term of office and contest the next elections. During 1993
the PSOE was plagued by a series of corruption scandals prompting
Gonz ález to call an early general election in June. The PSOE
narrowly won, with 38.8% of the vote to the opposition Popular
Party's (PP) 34.8 %, but lost its parliamentary majority. In August,
on the king's request, González formed a new minority government.
Further revelations of corruption during 1994 increased pressure
on González to reform his government or step down, and in 1995
the party came under attack for its alleged involvement in a `dirty
war´ against ETA activists in the 1980s. Local elections in May
1995 were won by the conservatives and in September the Catalan
nationalist party withdrew its support from the governing coalition,
following allegations that González had himself been involved
in the setting up of an anti-ETA hit squad in the 1980s.
The end of the González era
Although a probe into the role Gonz ález and other members of parliament
had played was subsequently abandoned, the loss of Catalan support
forced him to call an early election in March 1996, in which the
conservative PP triumphed, ending 13 years of Socialist government.
However, the margin was narrower than expected, and 20 seats short
of a majority, forcing the party's leader, José Maria Aznar, to
begin talks with moderate Catalan nationalists to form a coalition
government. Aznar formed a minority PP government in May.
In December 1995 the Spanish foreign minister, Javier Solana
Madariaga, became NATO secretary general, and in November 1996
parliament agreed to Spain's full integration within NATO, limiting
the 1982 limitations to membership.
ETA continued its separatist fight, and in July 1997 Spain was
swept by an unprecedented mass mobilization against the organization's
terrorist activities. The government called for the isolation
of the pro-ETA Herri Batasuna (HB) Party, which generally wins
up to 15% of the Basque vote. In Dec 1997 Spain's Supreme Court
jailed 23 HB leaders in a verdict expected to have a profound
impact in the Basque Country. It was the first time in HB's legal
existence that a legal judgement recognized a link between the
army and armed Basque separatists.
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