Spain

The container harbour at Barcelona, Spain. Containers, which can be transported by ship and by road, have made Barcelona a leading commercial centre on the northeast coast of Spain. The harbour has been an important port in the Mediterranean since Roman times.

At a smelting plant in Asturias, Spain, molten metal is being poured into a mould. In smelting, a metallic ore is placed in a furnace in order to produce a pure metal and slag (the unwanted parts of the ore). This is usually achieved in a blast furnace, which uses a blast of preheated air.

Spires of the Sagrada Familia (Church of the Holy Family), Barcelona, Spain, designed by the Catalan architect Antonio Gaudí. According to Gaudí's original plans, the cathedral should eventually have twelve towers representing the apostles and four towers for the evangelists. The building, a bizarre fusion of Gothic and Art Nouveau styles, was begun in the late 19th century but remains under construction.

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
For the history of Spain before 1945, see Spain: history to 1492, Spain: history 1492–1936, and Spain: history 1936–45.

Following his victory in the Spanish Civil War (1936–39) Gen FranciscoFranco 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. In 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 re-examining 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 in 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 in 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 Partido Socialista Obrero Español (PSOE; Spanish Socialist Workers' Party), led by Felipe González. 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 González 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 González 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 December 1997 Spain's Supreme Court jailed 23 HB leaders. It was the first time in HB's legal existence that a legal judgement recognized a link between the army and armed Basque separatists. Spain's Supreme Court in July 1998 sentenced a former Socialist interior minister, his deputy and a former civil governor to 10 years each in jail for their involvement in a ‘dirty war’ against the Basque guerrilla group ETA in the 1980s.

In September 1998 ETA called a ‘total and indefinite’ ceasefire. The government eventually responded by announcing, in November, that it would begin peace talks with ETA. Spain's constitutional court in July 1999 freed the leaders of HB, jailed in 1997. It was hoped that the move would help to consolidate the Basque peace process. After a 14-month suspension of violence, in November 1999 the group announced that it would resume actions against the government. Two factors appeared to be behind the decision: the arrest of an ETA negotiator, Belen Gonzalez, the previous month, and the failure of the moderate Basque parties to work with ETA in pressing for an independent Basque state by political means. The announcement frustrated hopes for a gradual peace in the Basque Country and prompted protests from Spaniards fearing a return to violence. In late January 2000, the ceasefire was brought to an end when two car bombs exploded in the Spanish capital, Madrid, killing an army officer and damaging vehicles and buildings. Two days after the blast, more than one million people demonstrated against Basque separatist violence on the streets of Madrid.

2000 election

Two political parties, the Socialists and the Communist-led United Left agreed in February 2000 to form their first alliance since the 1936 civil war, in order to fight the ruling conservative People's party in the March general election. They agreed to form a coalition government if they won. However, the elections recorded a decisive victory for the centre-right People's Party, led by Prime Minister José Maria Aznar, which was also the biggest conservative victory in Spain's 25-year-old democracy.

ETA violence continues

ETA's violence continued into 2000; bombings and assassinations marked ETA's most violent wave of terror for a decade, and brought the total number of deaths to 800 since 1968 in the campaign for Basque independence. In September, 37 suspected ETA terrorists, including its military commander Ignacio Gracia Arregui, were arrested by Spanish and French police in a concerted cross-border initiative. The violence continued, however, and a Supreme Court judge and his two bodyguards were killed in late October. The following month, Ernest Lluch, a former socialist minister, was shot dead. Nationwide protests against terrorism followed the next day. On 12 December, Spain's two biggest political parties, the ruling People's Party and the opposition Socialists, agreed to cooperate against ETA.

In March 2001, the socialist deputy mayor of Lasarte, in the Basque region, was killed by ETA, a week after they set off two car-bombs in Mediterranean resorts. In May the Basque Nationalist Party celebrated their best election victory in Basque elections for 20 years. However, the pro-ETA party suffered its worst defeat. A Spanish general and 15 other people were injured when a bomb exploded in central Madrid, Spain, on 28 June in an apparent assassination attempt blamed on ETA. ETA was also blamed for two car bomb explosions, one in Madrid on 10 July that killed a policeman and injured 13 others, the other in a small village near Pamplona, northern Spain, on 14 July that killed a local councillor. It was the 10th killing in 2001 and the 33rd to be attributed to ETA since the terrorist group ended its ceasefire. Public demonstrations against the killings were held on 15 July in cities and towns throughout Spain and in parts of the Basque Country.

Tentative talks

Prime Minister Aznar met Basque president Juan José Ibarretxe in July 2001, to discuss the future of the Basque region and the continuing ETA violence. No agreements were reached, but the meeting was widely viewed as a step forward. However, a massive car bomb planted by ETA prompted the evacuation of hundreds of holidaymakers from a busy hotel in the Spanish resort of Salou on the Costa Brava in August. ETA had warned months earlier it would target tourist spots to damage Spain's leading economic sector and make an international impact. In towns nearby, police later seized weapons, 160 kg/350 lb of explosives and a car-bomb ready for use. Police later struck a blow against ETA, arresting six members of a commando unit in and around Barcelona. ETA hit back with a bomb in the car park of Madrid airport; it caused extensive damage but no injuries.

A car bomb in a busy residential part of Madrid on 6 November 2001 wounded 90 people. The attack, blamed on ETA, was apparently aimed at Juan Junquera, a senior government scientist and former defence official, who was passing in his car when the device was detonated.

On 1 January 2002, euro notes and coins were introduced as the national currency. In February 2002, the Spanish government and the opposition PSOE agreed to ban political parties with links to violent groups. The decision initially affected only the Basque separatist party Euskal Herritarrok (EH), which has links with ETA.

Following an occupation by Moroccan soldiers of the uninhabited rocky outcrop of Perejil in the Strait of Gibraltar in July and the subsequent recapture of the islet by Spanish forces, the Spanish and Moroccan governments declared a truce in their ownership dispute under an accord brokered by the USA. However, Morocco continued to claim a number of other Spanish-held territories, including the north African city-enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla.

Spain (redirected from Supein)