SPANISH
ELECTIONS ON 14 MARCH 2004:
Next
month, the Spanish will decide who will govern the country during
four years.
Actually,
the President of the Government is Aznar (PP), but he will not
represent this party again, now for PP is Mariano Rajoy, the Aznar's
successor.
PP
(Partido Popular) is a conservative party.
The
other « big » party is PSOE (Partido Socialista
Obrero Espanol) with Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero as candidate for
the Government.
PSOE
is a Socialist Party, and it was at the Presidence some years ago
with Felipe Gonzalez.
The
third main party is IU(Izquierda Unida), with Gaspar Llamazares as
candidate.
IU
is the Comunist Party, and its real possibilities to get the
Government are not very high.
Usually
they make union with PSOE or others little parties « from
the left » to govern in some regions.
Last
surveys show that Mariano Rajoy (PP) will win the election on 14
March, but now it is soon to know if it will be for absolut majority
again or not.
In
spite of some catastrophes and problems last year, these surveys say
that people believe in PP's project yet.
The
« Prestige Catastrophe » in
Galicia last year, when an oil tanker spilled all its oil into the
Galicia's beaches because of a decision from the Government or the
massive manifestations against the Irak War, with was supported by PP
too, are not enough reasons to change the party in the Government for
many Spanish.
Since
Franco's died on 1975, when it was stablished a Constitutional
Monarchy in Spain, first elections was on 1977 when Adolfo Suarez
(Democratic Party, now it isn't exists) won, introducing many
democratic and politic changes.
It
began the negociation to be part of the EU (Spain was part of NATO 1985
and of EU in 1986).
After
him, Calvo Sotelo was the second President of Spain after the long
dictatorship.
On
1982, PSOE with Felipe Gonzalez took the presidence until 1996, date
in which PP with Aznar won the elections until today.
In
some weeks we will know who will continue the short Democratic
Spanish History.
ABOUT
SPAIN:
POPULATION:
39.000.000 habitants.
AREA:
505.050 kilometres2.
PRINCIPAL
CITIES: Madrid (capital), Barcelona, Sevilla, Valencia, Bilbao.
GOVERNMENT:
Constitutional Monarchy.
KING:
Juan Carlos de Borbón.
PRESIDENT
OF THE GOVERNMENT: José María Aznar.
There are
17
Comunidades Autonomas.
In the
Nord
of the country are: Aragón, Navarra, Euskadi (País
Vasco), Cantabria, Asturias, Galicia, and La Rioja.
The
Central
Part is divised in: Castilla la Mancha y Castilla León and
Madrid.
The west
part with: Cataluña, Valencia, Extremadura, Murcia and Islas
Baleares,
And, in
the
South: Andalucia, Islas Canarias, Ceuta y Melilla.
PRINCIPAL
POLITICAL PARTIES: Partido Popular (PP), Partido Socialista
Obrero Español (PSOE), Izquierda Unida (IU), Convergencia y
Unió (CiU), Partido Nacionalista Vasco (PNV).
NACIONALISMS:
there are problems with nationalism in País Vasco, Galicia and
Cataluña.
In these
Comunidades Autonomas, there are a dialect (but the Spanish language
too): in Galicia they speak « gallego »; in
Pais Vasco, « euskera » and in Cataluña
there is « catalan ».
But there
are more regions with differents dialects, as Asturias with
« bable »
or Valencia with « valenciano », for example.
- País
Vasco: in the Nord of Spain.
In this
region, they speak Spanish and « euskera » too.
In Pais
Vasco the nationalism problem is very complicated because actually it
is a social, constitutional and terrorist problem sometimes by some
groups of violence.
Terrorist
Organization, ETA, reclames with a violent way the total independence
for that region.
-
Galicia: in the Nord West of
Spain.
In this
region they speak Spanish and « gallego » too.
But the
nationalism problems are not important, only in the cultural way.
They
don't
reclame the independence from Spain.
There is
a
terrorist organization too, Grapo, but it doesn't act for years.
-
Cataluña: in the Nord East of Spain.
In this
region they speak Spanish and « catalan » too.
Here
problems are economic and political, they reclame specially the
economic self-determination.
There are
nationalist movements but not terrorist, only for this
self-determination and autogestion.
For
more information:
Spanish
History and Political System:
http://www.vespito.net/historia
PSOE:
Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero
http://www.cidob.org/bios/castellano/lideres/r-045.htm
PP:
Mariano Rajoy
http://www.marianorajoy.es/
IU:
Gaspar Llamazares
http://www.el-mundo.es/magazine/2004/225/1074010328.html
