Upon
the death of
General Franco
in November 1975,
Prince
Juan Carlos de Borbon y Borbon,
Franco's personally designated heir, assumed
the titles of king and chief of state. Dissatisfied
with the slow pace of post-Franco
liberalisation, in July 1976, the
King
replaced Franco's last prime minister with
Adolfo
Suarez.
Suarez entered office promising that elections
would be held within one year, and his government
moved to enact a series of laws to liberalise
the new regime.
Spain's
first elections
to the Cortes (parliament)
since 1936
were held on June 15, 1977.
Prime
Minister
Suarez's Union of the Democratic Center
(UCD), a moderate center-right coalition,
won 34% of the vote and the largest block
of seats in the Cortes. The left-of-centre
Partido
Socialista Obrero Español
(PSOE), led by Felipe González Márquez,
came in second.
Under Suarez,
the new Cortes set about drafting a democratic
constitution that was overwhelmingly approved
by voters in a December 1978
national referendum.
In the
elections of 1982,
the PSOE
and their charismatic leader González
were voted into power with a sizeable overall
majority. González remained prime
minister for
14 years.
By 1993,
the economy was in trouble, unemployment
had reached 22.5%,
and various scandals had rocked the PSOE.
They did however hold onto power in the
1993
elections, but without an overall majority
and reliant on parliamentary
support from the Covergència
I Unió
(CiU) party.
In the 1996
general election, the centre-right
Partido Popular (PP), led by José
María Aznar, won. They did however
fail to get an overall majority and had
to govern through partliamentary alliances.
By 1998,
the economy under the PP
was doing well, and in 2000
with Spain having the fastest growing economy
in the EU,
employment down to 15%
(although in reality this was lower since
many dole claimants worked in the thriving
‘black economy’), the
PP swept
to an overall majority in the general elections.
In 2003,
Aznar sends troops to aid the American-led
invasion of Iraq
to overthrow Saddam Hussein. This unpopular
decision along with the March
2004 Madrid bombings that claimed
200 lives, were key factors in the unexpected
win for José Luis Rodríguez
Zapatero's PSOE
party in the 2004
general elections. A large turnout
of 77%
of the electorate (up 9% on 2000) also suggested
a backlash as a result of previous week's
bombings. The PP did however hold on to
power in the Senate.
See
also
Culture
& Leisure
Flamenco
Bullfighting
Painting
& Sculpture
History
at a Glance
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