A profile of Spanish politics

No one has ever accused the Spanish of a simple democratic system. In contrast to our two-party system in America (and at times in the past three parties, and at one point even four major contending parties), Spain has a many parties all with good chances to win seats and perhaps even presidency. A basic article on Spain's government would tell you that this the country is a Constitutional Monarchy or a Parliamentary Monarchy, however this is true in name only. The full title of Spain's government (which is the windy 'parliamentary representative democratic consitutional monarchy'), perhaps gives us slightly more insight but this still is misleading. So what is the face of Spanish politics?

'While our official name makes our government appear like France,' says Professor Raúl G. of the University of Deusto, 'in truth Spain is much closer to a federation. Though not as tightly bound as Germany, which is a federation in the truest sense of the word, but still functioning much like one with the United States of America somewhere between Spain and Germany.'

But the king is not completely without power. Among them, the king - currently Juan Carlos I - has many priveleges we would expect with our executive branch in America: among them, the ability to grant reprieves and pardons, the title Commander in Chief, the commander of armed forces, the ability to remove the President from office, to formally declare war or peace with nations (though only after approval from the General Courts). Aside from the few but important powers King Juan Carlos I enjoys, the rest is decided democratically.

The two largest parties are the conservative Partido Popular and the center-leftPartido Socialista Obrero Español (currently in power after the Partido Popular lost significant support after supporting George Bush in Iraq), both usually go neck and neck in elections. The far-left Unida Izquierda is the third most popular, followed by the combined conservative Cataluñan parties and then the Basque Nationalist Party at number 5 (the impossibly difficult-to-pronounce Euzko Alderdi Jeltzalea).

From a glance as simple as this, one would think that the Basque Nationalists are represented by only one major party. This is not the case. One might grow suspicious of such a conclusion when one looks at the numbers. In last year's congressional elections, the BNP only received 300,000+ votes, yet the city of Bilbao alone has 2,500,000 citizens. Clearly something must be up.

If I feel like it, I'll finish this post. Now I'm bored.