Now we have left the EU UK citizens can no\nlonger vote in Spain. However, only three out of the potential 50 UK citizens\nqualified to vote in the Municipal and European elections in my area of\nsouthern Spain, actually voted last time.
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It has always been a bone of contention for\nme that UK citizens, resident in Spain, weren\u00b4t able to vote in the General\nElections but, it seems, I am in a minority. Many non-Spanish speaking residents\nseem to be totally removed or alienated, or both, from Spanish politics.
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As many non-Spanish speakers do not have\naccess to Spanish television and the national, regional and local news, do not\nhave access to information about what is happening on the Spanish political\nscene; what laws are being discussed or passed; what moves are being made to\nchange infrastructures and culture; or news of political movements which may\naffect the areas where readers of this blog live. This can only add to the\nsensation of living in a goldfish bowl with a glass barrier between you and the\nsociety you live in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Readers probably know that the body of dictator Franco was ceremoniously removed from the Valley of the Fallen (Valle de los Caidos), where it had laid in a very grand marble mausoleum for over 40 years, to be reburied in a public cemetery. However, less well known is the fact that the Franco Foundation, which protects and exalts Franco\u00b4s memory, is publicly funded; that lands and houses confiscated from his political opponents remain in the hands of the family Franco; or that Billy el Ni\u00f1o, state torturer under Franco, and many other leading figures of the regime, continue to enjoy pensions and medals in recognition of their \u201c public service\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nMoreover, thousands of Franco\u00b4s opponents are buried in mass unmarked graves,\nincluding in the Valle of the Caidos, which they were forced to build; that\ncountless babies were stolen from \u201cpolitically unsuitable\u201d mothers and given up\nfor adoption to supporters of the regime; and an endless etcetera of political\nsecrets suppressed or hidden from the national memory by the \u201ctransition\u201d (a\nperiod of forgetting after the death of Franco) purportedly designed to prevent\na new civil war.*<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Well, all this is about to change, principally due to the \u201cWe Can\u201d (Podemos) party.
Also on the agenda for change, as the coalition government of the Socialists (PSOE) and Podemos get to grips with power, is a bill legalizing euthanasia; changes to employment laws to improve conditions and workers\u00b4 rights; creating a public bank; and outlawing the exaltation of the dictatorship and withdrawing medals, pensions and public funds from those who do: and repealing the gagging law (Ley Mordaza), widely criticized by Europe and which limits human rights and rights to protest in Spain. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nThe revolution in Spanish politics began in May 2011 when thousands of young\npeople converged on the centre of Madrid, converting one of the main squares\ninto a massive protest campsite. The city centre was paralyzed for nearly a\nmonth by a protest organized via the internet and with an estimated\nparticipation of between 80,000 and 125,000 young people claiming the Government \u201cdid not represent\u201d\nthem. The protest became known as 15M (March 15). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nThousands of young people simply turned up, organized food, shelter, medical\nattention, and basic hygiene, camped out and protested. There were no leaders,\nthere was no violence\u2026..just indignation at the social injustices they\nperceived in society but in particular the massive repossession of homes, high\nyouth unemployment, the bank bailout and\nthe failure of successive governments to introduce real change to relieve\nwidespread poverty and large scale corruption on the political scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nFour years later, and against all prognostics, Podemos won five seats in the\nEuropean elections of 2014 logging 1.2 million votes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nThe next year groups forming part of 15M, including Podemos, gained enough\nseats in the municipal elections to form \u201cCitizen Coalitions,\u201d which governed\nin many large cities including Barcelona and Valencia and in December 2015 they\nwon 69 seats in Congress, the equivalent of the UK House of Commons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nPodemos was vilified, criticized and the emerging leaders, crucified for their\nappearance. They wore jeans and carried backpacks and the leader, Pablo\nIglesias had a ponytail. They were rash, impetuous and voluble and they broke\nevery unspoken rule of political behaviour and rhetoric. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nAlthough Podemos were the third political force after the 2016 General\nElections Pedro Sanchez bowed to pressure from his party and made a pact with\nthe new centre-right party, Ciudadanos, giving Podemos the cold shoulder.\nHowever, he failed to reach the 175 majority in Congress necessary to form a\ngovernment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nThe Conservative Partido Popular did form a government which fell to a censor\nvote in 2018 instigated by the PSOE and supported by Podemos, following a judicial\ndecision (in the Gurtel case) finding widespread and institutional corruption\nin the PP. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nThe Socialists formed a caretaker government, which lasted nearly a year and\nended in two general elections in the same year, in which no party gained an\noutright majority and effectively brought an end to two party politics in\nSpain. It also saw the virtual disappearance of Ciudadanos as a political force\nand the emergency of the extreme right wing Vox party.
\nWhen the first General Election gave Sanchez a clear win but an insufficient\nmajority he negotiated with but could not agree to the radical demands of\nPodemos. The second General Elections in a year were called.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nOnce again he failed to gain the majority he needed but the country had clearly\nvoted for coalition politics and within 24 hours of the result he announced a\npact with Podemos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nThe political left in Spain are notorious for not agreeing. They haven\u00b4t agreed\nsince the Civil War when they spent almost as much time fighting each other as\nFranco, so it was never going to be easy. Moreover the vilified Communist\nparty, which never had a hope of gaining any power in Spain in the foreseeable\nfuture, had joined forces with Podemos making a coalition with the Socialists even\nmore controversial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nBut the country breathed a sigh of relief, partly due to voter fatigue, and\npartly because, for many, a coalition\nbetween the three right wing parties, which included the extreme right wing,\nVox, was an unthinkable step backwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Podemos has added many members of its own party and the 15M movement to its list of critics by entering into this coalition government and for those who think they have too much influence in the new Government there is another faction who thinks quite the opposite.
However, for better for worse, Spain is facing a period of real and radical change which will affect all of us in one way or another so this may be a good moment to begin to get to grips the new politics of Spain.
*Despite the invisible gags of the Transition there are countless books which explore the legacies of the state coup which uprooted the democratically elected republican Government and plunged Spain into civil war. Apart from histories there are some beautifully crafted and intriguing novels by such authors as Almudena Grandes and\/or\u00a0 Carlos Ruiz Zafon\u00a0 which illuminate the pre and post-Civil war periods. A future blog will be dedicated to these authors and the English translations available for purchase on the internet ).<\/em><\/p>\n ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"