Storytelling

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Daniel und Alicja aus Spanien

Spain’s Political Scene in a nutshell

In order to get a grip on the present political arena in 21st century Spain's parliamentary monarchy, you really have to travel some 70 years back in time and place yourself in our infamous Civil War. The long tensions that gave birth to that conflict had truly created a situation in which, in poet Antonio Machado´s words, "two Spains" had became absolutely irreconcilable. These two Spains are generally explained in the excessively general terms of Right and Left, but these concepts vary a lot between different countries. In Spain, this dichotomy really means, very broadly, an opposition between fervent Catholicism and anticlericalism, between centralism and (peripheral) nationalism, and a centuries long class conflict between (mainly) well-off families (both aristocratic and bourgeois) and the ignorant and underprivileged workers and country-dwellers. The degree of viscerality derived from both parts of the conflict is not easy to imagine for a foreigner, and still lurks in the mind of every Spaniard. Everybody’s family belonged to one of the sides, and the hatred against "los rojos" (the reds; the extremely heterogeneous coalition of leftist groups which supported the republic) and "los fachas" (the "national" side; a group composed mainly of ecclesiastic and military classes) has been passing from one generation to the next.

The Civil War came to an end with the rise to power of dictator Francisco Franco, who aimed to create a stable, self-sufficient and monolithic Spain, resorting to the power of the Catholic Church, and myths of "Spanish purity" and of imperial grandeur. (Don’t worry, the history lesson is about to end.)
Franco's regime lasted until his death in 1975. The following years up to the signing of the 1978 Spanish Constitution are known as "La Transición", the transition towards democracy. To ease up the critical process, Franco's elected successor, Juan Carlos de Borbón, was kept as the main figure in the process. Being a symbol of continuity, stability and "national pride", he managed to turn the tide and make the democratic project a reality.

The first democratic elections in 1977 saw the rise to power of the UCD (Union of the Democratic Center), whose main purpose was keeping any kind of political extremism at bay. This party faded away as soon as its charismatic leader, Adolfo Suárez, resigned due to the pressures that were being put on him. The winner of the 1982 elections was the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers Party), thanks to the figure of its leader and leftist icon Felipe González. This is the party in power nowadays in Spain, under President Jose Luis Rodríguez Zapatero's government.

Gonzalez stayed as President (or Prime Minister, since the official head of the state keeps on being the King) for no less than 14 years. PSOE´s loss of power had much to do with corruption, questionable methods for fighting terrorism and the soon established tradition of punishment voting for the opposite party whenever economic factors were not favourable ("those good-for-nothings at the government are to blame"). I say opposite party, because throughout the 90s Spain had become a de-facto two-party system, between the PSOE and the PP (Popular Party), founded by one of Franco's ex-ministers.

The left, so much divided during the Civil War and the Franquist regime years, was embodied in the economically moderate (yet culturally and self-declared progressive) PSOE and the cacophony of different radicalisms under the wing of the once third major party, IU ("Izquierda Unida", ironically enough, United Left). On the other side of the ring, the PP represents the interests of the enterprise embracing a Neoconservative ideology, resorting however to populist calls to the "decent working Spaniard" which are dead ringers for Franquist rhetorics. No wonder, given that most of its top members are descendents of Franquist leaders. The third major political group in Spain are the various nationalisms that succeed in the most peripheral areas of the country, which helped giving the PP its 1996 victory.

Spain’s next president, Jose María Aznar, transformed himself from a moustachioed and slightly obnoxious bureaucrat into a cocky macho leader who hung out with George Bush and Tony Blair while boasting of his doing 2000 sit-ups every morning. He decided not to present himself to the 2004 general elections in the middle of general social unrest caused mainly by his politics of support to the Iraq and Afghanistan military interventions.

The aftermath of the 11 March 2004 terrorist attacks saw the comeback of the PSOE. The general elections were to be held only 3 days after the bombings, during which days the PP tried to put the blame on Basque terrorism, in all probability knowing that an Islamic responsible would be their undoing after the social uproar against the ongoing military interventions in middle east. The resulting president, Jose Luis Rodríguez Zapatero was a shy and quiet newcomer to the political arena, whose optimistic speeches and non-confrontative manners had earned him the nicknames of "Bambi" (after Disney's character) and "soso-man" (a take on superman using the Spanish adjective for dull). Many political analysts commented that the victory had come as a surprise for the Socialists, and that the new government wasn't fully prepared to assume power. Zapatero's cabinet decided to focus on social issues and start much publicised progressive projects, such as gender equality laws, same-sex marriage laws and some rather peculiar measures such as giving away low energy light bulbs to every household, and a bonus nation-wide tax refund, announced during the campaign for the 2008 elections.

On the eve of the late 2000s global financial crisis, the relationship between government and opposition became gradually more and more tense, especially after the failure of the Socialists' truce with the Basque terrorist organization, ETA. The political climate turned into what is usually referred to as "crispación", a difficult word to translate since it means at the same time visceral confrontation with low rhetorics and the digging up of the contrary's past sins (It is not difficult for a political debate to develop into a series of accusations based on what each other's grandparents did or didn't during the civil war).

That is the state in which politics are now in Spain. The PSOE is suffering the effects of the recession amidst accusations of economic incompetence while the PP struggles to keep its much publicised unity as Aznar's lisping successor Mariano Rajoy loses his power over the different factions that make up his party, affected by a major internal crisis caused by serious charges of corruption.
All of this means that voters tend to become increasingly apolitical and resort to punishment voting, or rather become absolutely disenchanted and stop voting altogether. In many regions of Spain, several nationalisms have sprung out as people prefer to vote to a party that promises to look after their local interests, in many instances resorting to vague, non-committed and rather opportunistic ideologies which allow them to ally themselves with whatever major party offers them the most profitable coalition terms.