Forty Years Strong - Spain's Empowering Constitution

Last December, Ambassador for Spain to Jamaica Hon Josef Maria Bosch Bessa led a most enlightening discussion on his country's Constitution.  Below is his address.

Ambassador for Spain Hon Josef Maria Bosch Bessa

SPAIN –  40 YEARS OF DEMOCRACY, 40 YEARS OF LIBERTY

This December 6th we commemorate the 40^th Anniversary of the Spanish Constitution. This period is sufficiently long to allow us an objective evaluation of its merits and achievements.

The Spanish Constitution of 1978 has brought about the longest period of liberty, stability and prosperity in the History of our Nation by establishing one of the most advanced democracies after a forty-year long dictatorship and a tragic Civil War.

This anniversary is a good occasion to celebrate a successful Spain that can be proud of itself not only for the strides it has made in the economic field but also for its remarkable record in Human Rights and its social advancements. We are numbered among the countries leading the recognition and enforcement of minority rights like those of LGTB and the furtherance  of social equality for women. We are the country that has overcome the objective of parity with a Government whose composition is now two thirds of women. Forty years in which Spain has consolidated itself as a full democracy ahead of countries such as the US, France, Italy or Belgium according to the Democracy Index of The Economist Intelligence Unit.

During these Forty years of democracy under the 1978 Constitution Spain has flourished as one of the most open and inclusive societies:  open to its own citizens on the inside as well as to the outside through international solidarity, welcoming refugees and economic migrants on a large scale. This is being achieved without the social fractures of other countries that have seen the rise of xenophobic movements that are becoming more and more powerful in many societies of our region. Spain has almost five million immigrants, more than 10% of its 47 million inhabitants, yet it has not experienced significant social integration problems. Spain is also among the most solidarity-prone countries in the world. In the last Forty years, we have dizzyingly transformed from a traditional country of emigration to one of immigration.

Forty years have elapsed in which Spain has moved from being a recipient of Official Development Aid, according to OECD standards, to becoming a developed economy among the ten more industrialized economies of the planet, the sixth biggest car maker in the world, and the second in Europe, second only to Germany. Spain is also the orchard of Europe and a world leader in genetics as well as in irrigation and greenhouse techniques. Spain happens to excel in agriculture and in tourism, those very sectors which are of particular interest to Jamaica. The World Economic Forum has placed Spain as the most competitive country in tourism and according to the World Tourism Organization, it has the second largest earnings in this field, only behind the USA.

Our 1978 Constitution has undoubtedly helped to bring economic growth, social progress and has been paramount in Spain’s integration in western democracies, being the key factor t to its membership in the European Union. Spain is proud to be at the core of the European integration process.

Forty years for a Constitution may seem a too short period in History, but Spain has been of great significance in the History of world constitutionalism. Historians agree that the first Medieval Parliaments in Europe, with the key innovation of including a representation of the commoners, were first created in the Kingdom of Aragon in 1162 and the Kingdom of Leon in 1188. UNESCO has declared the Parliament of the Kingdom of Leon that met in 1188 to be “the oldest documental testimony of the European parliamentary system”. That was officially stated in 2013 within the framework of its Memory of the World Programme.

Historians also consider that the Catalan Parliament was in the XIVth Century the most accomplished model of Parliamentarianism in the Middle Ages, by its organization and scope. The English Parliament only included representatives of the boroughs, what would become the House of Commons, for the first time in 1264.

In the wave of liberal Constitutions that began in Virginia in 1776, Spain also had a central role with the “Constitución de Cádiz” of 1812 which had not only a decisive influence in the newly  independent Republics of Latin America, but also in many revolutionary movements in Europe, from Naples to Russia. As early as in 1812 the Cadiz Constitution established indirect universal male suffrage and a comprehensive charter of human rights, thus becoming the most advanced Constitution of its time. Spain did not lag behind the process of democratization of the European liberal states in the XIXth century and recognized direct universal male suffrage in 1869. The 1931 Republican Constitution granted women's suffrage, some years before European countries such as France (1946) or Switzerland (1971).Therefore the 1978 Constitution has behind it a long constitutional tradition, but what makes  it a milestone is that it is the result of the broadest possible consensus among idelogically opposed political forces and the overall Spanish society, thus being  crucial in the reconciliation of the so called “Two Spains”, one progressive and the other conservative. These “Two Spains” had been in constant conflict during most of the XIXth and XXth centuries. 

The long-standing confrontation of conservative-traditionalist and liberal-progressist forces ruined our country, causing Spain to lag behind a more progressive and developed Northern Europe. The last chapter of this confrontation was the Spanish Civil War in 1936-1939,  a blood bath of Spaniards, brother against brother, which Historians have also seen as the first struggle of Fascism against democratic and proletarian forces - a true prelude to World War II. In fact, during the Spanish Civil War Hitler tested his deadly tactics, standing out the bombings of civilians in the Basque city of Guernica, horror and massacre depicted by Picasso in his masterpiece “Guernica”. The rebellion led by General Franco finally swept the Spanish II Republic putting an end to its modernization and democratization attempts. More than 500,000 persons escaped Franco’s repression and many settled in Latin America. Spain lost many of its intellectuals, artists and writers, entering a long period of cultural darkness. 2019 will be of significance to Spain too, since next year we will honor the hundreds of thousands of Spaniards forced into exile in its 80^th anniversary.

When General Franco passed away in 1975, many feared the risk of the renewal of confrontation as if Spain had a congenital inclination to conflict. Against all odds, Spaniards were able to rewrite their History and build a broad value-based consensus with democracy, the rule of law, social inclusion, tolerance and the recognition of diversity as the cornerstones of the new political system. King Juan Carlos played a decisive role inspiring confidence to all political players as a neutral Head of State. Years 1976 and 1977 were the turning point. The Spanish people imposed its will of peace and reconciliation. Spaniards pushed for democracy and the old Franco Regime forces gave way and faded away with relatively mild resistance. The Franco’s Cortes (a fascist-like undemocratic legislative chamber) voted for its own dissolution in a surprising “hara-kiri” that allowed our first free elections in 1977, after forty years of Dictatorship. The elected Parliament (“Las Cortes Generales”) agreed with a wide majority on the text of the new Constitution that was massively approved by 87,78% of the census on the 6^th December 1978 in a Referendum. Its distinctive mark was its wide social and political consensus that gathered all political parties from the Communists to most of the sectors that supported the Old Regime, aware of the need to leave dictatorship behind. The central actors were, nevertheless, the Socialist Party, PSOE, and a coalition of liberals and Christian democrats, UCD, that imposed the general lines of an advanced constitutional framework in the line of our western European neighbours.

The Constitution of 1978 is the offspring of consensus and it is considered a model of peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy. Consensus is at its roots and that consensus also included the traditionally strong nationalist movements in Catalonia and the Basque Country, harshly repressed by General Franco. There were also strong regional feelings in almost every part of Spain, mostly in the Canary Islands, Andalucia, Galicia, Valencia and the Balearic Islands. The Constitution decisively established a federative-like model with 17 Autonomous Communities (Regions and Nationalities) with one of the world’s highest levels of self-government.

This is why our political system is known as “Estado de las Autonomías”, State of Autonomies, an original model which has had a deep impact in culture and in the daily life of all citizens. Spain has been profoundly transformed, moving from being one of the most centralized bureaucracies of the world, where everything had to be dealt with in some obscure ministry dependency in Madrid, to a democracy that has brought government and decision making closer to the citizens. Making use of their political autonomy, regions and its capital cities have flourished in culture and also in economy, allowing the expansion of the historical diversity of Spain, an element of its richness and a sign of national identity.

The Constitution of 1978 recognizes Spain as a Nation that includes and protects  Nationalities and Regions and guarantees the co-officiality of all Spanish languages (Catalan, Basque and Galician) along with Castilian in each of the territories concerned. We have been able to build unity on the recognition of our diversity which is our heritage and our richness.

After forty years of democracy, peace, stability and progress, I would like to end by expressing my confidence in the future of the Parliamentarian Monarchy established in 1978 that has demonstrated its solid continuity with the 2014 proclamation of King Felipe VI and Infanta Leonor as Princess of Asturias, my confidence in one of the most advanced democracies whose stability is grounded on the rule of law and on a progressive system of respect and protection of Human Rights.