| Horoscope |
|---|
|
|
|
| |
|
Spain Page |
Welcome to ElectionInfo.com's pages on Spain
Official Name: Kingdom of Spain
Capital: Madrid
Area: 504,780 square kilometres ( 194,897 square miles )
Major cities (Population)
Madrid 4,072,000 (1995)
Barcelona 2,819,000 (1995)
Zaragoza 837,327 (1991)
Valencia 752,909 (1991)
Seville 659,126 (1991)
Bilbao 369,839 (1991)
Population: 39,621,000 (1995 estimate)
Population growth rate: 0.2 per cent (1990-1995 average)
Type of government: Parliamentary monarchy
Independence: 1492 (expulsion of the Moors and unification)
Constitution: 6 December 1978, effective 29 December 1978
Voting Rights: Universal at age 18
Government
The monarch is head of state, but the executive head of government is the prime minister. The bicameral parliament, called the Cortes Generales, is made up of the Congress of Deputies and a senate, 208 of whose members are directly elected, with each of the 17 autonomous regions also sending representatives. The Congress of Deputies can have between 300 and 400 members but the number elected by proportional representation at each election since democracy was restored in 1977 has been 350. Each region has its own legislative assembly and a governing council. The regions are themselves divided into provinces with responsibilities for local government. The voting age is 18.
Recent History
Spain was politically neutral in World War I, a period that marked the growth of republicanism, and King Alfonso XIII abdicated in 1931 after elections had produced a republican majority. In 1936 civil war broke out between the Nationalists (led by General Francisco Franco and supported by Fascists in Germany and Italy) and the Republicans (supported by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics [USSR]). After a brutal war in which some 750,000 people were killed, the Republicans surrendered in 1939. Franco assumed complete control of the government and ruled as a dictator until 1975. When Franco died in 1975, Juan Carlos de Borbón y Borbón became King Juan Carlos I. The following year a Political Reform Law was passed, and in 1977 the first free elections in four decades were held. They were won by the Union of the Democratic Centre (UCD). In 1981 an attempted coup failed, due largely to the intervention of the king. In the 1982 elections, the UCD was defeated by the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) led by Felipe Gonzáles Márquez. Support for the PSOE, however, has been on the decline in recent years. In the 1989 elections, it won only half the seats in the Congress of Deputies. In the 1993 elections, it won even fewer seats, although it remained the largest party. Gonzáles finally lost power in May 1996, when new prime minister Jose-Maria Aznar Lopez, the leader of the conservative Popular party, put together a coalition with nationalist parties following a general election.
The government continues to face the issue of Basque separatism in the northern part of the country. Separatist rebels have killed several hundred people over the last three decades, and clashes between police and separatists are frequent.
|
|
