During the three decades since the Second
World War, Spain had begun to modernise both
its agriculture and its industry. The progress made
since the 1960s had been considerable, aided by
the West European discovery of Spain as a holiday
playground. But democratic advance was by
no means assured in 1975. King Juan Carlos
appointed a moderate socialist, Adolfo Suárez, as
prime minister. Suárez restored parliamentary
democracy and permitted all parties, including the
communists, to compete in the general election of
- King Juan Carlos gave his firm backing to
democracy, and neither he nor the people would
tolerate an army coup, such as was attempted in - A further coup was threatened ahead of the
general election in 1982, which the Socialist Party
won, Felipe González becoming prime minister.
González’s biggest success was the signature in
June 1985 of the treaty of accession to the
European Economic Community, which Spain
joined in January 1986. The second half of the
1980s was a period of sustained economic growth,
as González followed orthodox economic policies
- to the chagrin of his more socialist followers. In
1989 he won the general election for a third time
by a narrow margin. The economy has continued
to grow. One black spot in Spain’s astonishing
progress was the continuation into the 1990s of
sporadic terrorist attacks by the Basque extremists.
But Spain was not alone in the Community in this
respect. In the early 1990s it shared the problems
of recession with the other members of the
Community, including high unemployment, and
González’s popularity fell.
‘No gain without pain’ can be applied with a
vengeance to Spain, whose government, like
Italy’s, was determined to be accepted into the
Monetary Union. Bringing the public sector
deficit down to 3 per cent required under the
Maastricht Treaty led to high unemployment at
well over 20 per cent which could not be lowered
by more spending. With the defeat of González
and the Socialist Party in the general election of
March 1996 a new chapter opened in Spain’s
politics. José Maria Aznar led the Conservative
People’s Party and formed a minority govern-
ment. By granting greater autonomy to the sev-
enteen regions he gained the support of the more
moderate Basque National Party and the main-
stream Catalan Nationalist Party. He set out to
improve the economy, to tackle the deep-seated
economic and regional problems – endemic cor-
ruption and favouritism to special-interest groups.
Aznar was a former tax inspector, a small neat
figure, lacking the glamour of González. His first
term in office was extraordinarily successful in
changing Spain’s sluggish progress, privatising
state industries, reducing unemployment from
close to one in five to a still high one in seven,
reforming labour laws and ensuring that prudent
balance of state expenditures and income met the
limits set by a member of the Monetary Union in- Spain took advantage of benign world eco-
nomic conditions to achieve a high growth rate
and shook off completely the shadow of the
repressive Franco dictatorship. With Catalonia
and its vibrant city of Barcelona a workable
accommodation was reached. In the Basque
region while the Basque regional government of
moderates did not seek independence, the terror-
ist ETA did not abandon bombings. Tensions
remained high. In foreign relations Aznar
defended national interests in the European
Union protecting the regional aid Spain enjoyed.
Despite long negotiations no settlement was
reached on the future of Gibraltar, whose popu-
lation would have no truck with any kind of joint
sovereignty deal. Along with the rest of conti-
nental Europe, the Spanish people were opposed
to war with Iraq in 2003, but Aznar ignored
public feeling and was notable as the only
Western European leader to stand firmly backing
Blair and Bush. Aznar can look back on a suc-
cessful tenure of government even though unem-
ployment still remained too high and regional
problems unresolved. Aznar was expected to win
the elections of March 2004 before handing over
to his successor. The Madrid train bombings on
11 March killing 191 people and injuring more
than 1,000 changed all that. Aznar was too quick
to try and lay the blame on ETA. The Socialists
(PSOE) won and José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero
became prime minister. He reversed Aznar’s Iraq
policy and brought Spain’s troops home. Socially
more liberal, for example recognising gay mar-
riage, less tolerant of the privileges of the Church,