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Politics of Spain takes place in a framework of a Federal Parliamentary Representative Democratic Monarchy , whereby the President Of The Government is the Head Of Government and of a pluriform multi-party system. Executive Power is exercised by the government. Federal Legislative Power is vested in both the Government and the two chambers of parliament. The Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature. POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS Parliamentary Democracy was restored following the death of General Franco in 1975, who had ruled since the end of the Civil War in 1939. The 1978 Constitution established Spain as a Parliamentary Monarchy , with the Prime Minister responsible to the bicameral Cortes Generales (''Cortes'') elected every 4 years. On 23 February 1981 , in an event known as the " 23-F ", rebel elements among the Security Forces seized the Cortes and tried to impose a military-backed government. However, the great majority of the military forces remained loyal to King Juan Carlos , who used his personal authority to put down the bloodless coup attempt. In October 1982, the Spanish Socialist Workers Party ( PSOE ), led by Felipe González Márquez , swept both the Congress of Deputies and Senate, winning an absolute majority. González and the PSOE ruled for the next 13 years. During that period, Spain joined NATO and the European Community . In March 1996, José María Aznar 's People's Party (PP) was the most voted for party, winning almost half the seats in the Congress. Aznar moved to liberalize the economy, with a program of Privatization s, Labor Market reform, and measures designed to increase Competition in selected markets, principally telecommunications. During Aznar's first term, Spain qualified for the Economic And Monetary Union Of The European Union . During this period, Spain participated, along with the United States and other NATO allies, in military operations in the Former Yugoslavia . Spanish planes took part in the Air War Against Serbia in 1999 and Spanish armed forces and police personnel are included in the international Peacekeeping forces in Bosnia ( IFOR , SFOR ) and Kosovo ( KFOR ). President Aznar and the PP won reelection in March 2000, obtaining absolute majorities in both houses of parliament. This mandate allowed Aznar to form a government unencumbered by the Coalition building that characterized his earlier administration. Aznar is a staunch supporter of transatlantic relations and the War On Terrorism . For the March 2004 Elections Aznar named First Vice President Mariano Rajoy to replace him as the People's Party candidate. However, in the aftermath of the March 11 terrorist bomb attacks in Madrid, the PP lost the 2004 elections to the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) and its leader José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero . Rodríquez Zapatero was elected prime minister with the votes of PSOE and a few minor parties. He selected the first Spanish government ever to have the same number of male and female ministers. SPANISH PARLIAMENT The Spanish Parliament is called Cortes Generales and is a Bicameral parliament consisting of the Congress Of Deputies , the Lower House (Spanish ''Cámara Baja'') and the Senate , the Upper House (Spanish ''Cámara Alta''). LOCAL GOVERNMENT The 1978 constitution authorized the creation of Regional Autonomous Governments . By 1985, 17 nationalities and regions covering all of peninsular Spain, the Canaries and the Balearic Islands had passed a Charter of Autonomy. In 1979, the first autonomous elections were held in the Basque and Catalan regions, which have the strongest local traditions by virtue of their history and separate languages. Since then, autonomous governments have been created in the remainder of the 17 regions. The central government continues to Devolve Powers to the regional governments, which will eventually have full responsibility for health care and education, as well as other social programs. THE NATIONALITY DEBATE In order to understand the political forces and debates in Spain we have to consider two dimensions: the Right vs. Left dimension and the Nation State vs. Plurinational State dimension. The political parties' agendas and the individual citizens' opinions can only be understood when looked at on both dimensions. The Constitution of the Kingdom of Spain states that 1) it is a Nation and 2) that it is formed by Nationalities and Regions. This statement is a contradiction (since Nationality and Nation essentially mean the same thing in political theory), but it was an agreement that struck a balance between the political parties advocating the Nation State and those advocating the plurinational state. The territorial organization of Spain into Autonomous Communities Of Spain is the administrative realization of this constitutional balancing act. Historically, parties advocating the Nation State claim that there is only one Nation and favour a State with a centralized government (with some degree of regional decentralization). Catalan, Basque and Galician political parties claim to represent their respective nations, different from the Spanish nation. These political parties share the belief that the Kingdom of Spain is a State formed by four nations, namely the Catalan Nation , the Basque Nation , the Galician Nation and what might be called the Castillian-Spanish nation (for lack of better word, since they would call it simply Spain ). Some of these parties often mention Switzerland as a model of Plurinational State shared by German, French, and Italian nationalities, while others advocate independence. Notice that these nations/nationalities are related to, but different from the current administrative borders of the Autonomous Communities Of Spain . The current situation can be understood as the sum of two historical failures: 1) the Nation State parties were unable to build a unified Nation State such as France, the model that the political and territorial organization of Spain has followed, while 2) the "national resistance" movements (specially Catalans and Basques) were also unable to break free from the Spanish State . REBELLION The Government of Spain has been involved in a long-running campaign against Basque Fatherland and Liberty ( ETA ), a rebel organization founded in 1959 and dedicated to promoting Basque independence. Initially ETA targeted primarily Spanish security forces, military personnel and Spanish Government officials. As the security forces and prominent politicians improved their own security, ETA increasingly became involved in killings of civilians, focused its attacks on the tourist seasons and attacked local government officials in the Basque Country. The group carried out numerous bombings against Spanish Government facilities and economic targets, including a car bomb assassination attempt on then-opposition leader Aznar in 1995, in which his Armored Car was destroyed but he was unhurt. The Spanish Government attributes over 800 deaths to ETA during its campaign of rebellion. In the years leading up to the permanent cease-fire, the government had more success in controlling ETA, due in part to increased security cooperation with French authorities. In November 1999, ETA ended a Cease-fire it declared in September 1998. From that time, ETA conducted a campaign of violence and has been blamed for the deaths of some 46 Spanish citizens and officials. Each attack was followed by massive anti-ETA demonstrations around the country, clearly demonstrating that the majority of Spaniards had no tolerance for continued ETA violence. This era came to an end on the 22nd of March, 2006, when ETA announced a permanent cease-fire, declaring that "Ending the conflict, here and now, is possible - this is the desire and the will of ETA." This cease-fire came into force on the 24th of March 2006. The statement has been regarded with some caution, given the fate of the organization's last cease-fire, but the general mood is now optimistic, and Prime Minister Zapatero trusts that the Government and ETA will be "joined in hope". Spain also contends with a resistance group, commonly known as GRAPO . GRAPO is an Urban Terrorist Group that seeks to overthrow the Spanish Government and establish a Marxist state. It opposes Spanish participation in NATO and U.S. presence in Spain and has a long history of assassinations, bombings, bank robberies and kidnappings mostly against Spanish interests during the 1970s and 1980s. In a June 2000 communiqué following the explosions of two small devices in Barcelona, GRAPO claimed responsibility for several attacks throughout Spain during the past year. These attacks included two failed armored car robberies, one in which two security officers died, and four bombings of political party offices during the 1999-2000 election campaign. In 2002, Spanish authorities were successful in hampering the organization's activities through sweeping arrests, including some of the group's leadership. GRAPO is not capable of maintaining the degree of operational capability that they once enjoyed. Most members of the groups are either in jail or abroad. Just as Spain has largely conformed to European norms in political and economic terms a quarter of a century after the death of Franco, so too has it progressed in the area of the safety of its citizens. The overall level of rebel activity is considerably less than in the past and the trend appears to be downward. TERRORISM Al Qaeda has been known to operate cells in Spain, both logistically to support operations in other countries and with the potential to mount attacks within Spain itself. Spanish investigative services and the judicial system have aggressively sought to arrest and prosecute their members, with the most notable raid occurring in Barcelona in January 2003. In that effort, Spanish authorities arrested 16 suspected terrorists and seized explosives and other chemicals. Spain also actively cooperates with foreign governments to diminish the transnational terrorist threat. Spain suffered a shocking terrorist attack, the March 11, 2004 Madrid Attacks on its capital's commuter train network, killing 200. Al-Qaeda has been blamed for this attack. Some have attributed the fall of the Aznar government to this attack, which took place just four days before the 2004 elections. At first the public believed ETA was responsible for the bombing. When they learned Al-Qaeda was the true culprit, many voters lashed out at the media and Aznar's government, believing the two had colluded to deceive the public. One of the first moves of Prime Minister Zapatero was to pull all Spanish troops out of Iraq , but at the same time he increased the amount of soldiers in Afghanistan , believing that nation represented a clear terrorist threat. EXECUTIVE BRANCH
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