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 40th 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 80th
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 6th 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.
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