Most people see their own country in a better light than foreigners. This is not the case for the Spanish: according to a study conducted in 2021 by the Real Instituto Elcano, a Madrid-based think tank, Spanish respondents were among the handful of five countries (out of a total of 24) with the worst their country's opinion than foreigners.
Good weather, livable cities and strong ties between friends and family make for a pleasant everyday life. However, in one parameter, Spain is one of the countries with the worst results in Europe: confidence in political parties is only 8%, and in governments 22%, compared to community averages of 18% and 37 % respectively. Looking back and reviewing their 44 years of democracy, Spaniards wonder what has gone wrong despite the doubling of average incomes, the rise of social liberties and the country's incorporation into the great European family.
The answer is in politics. From 1982 until recently, Spain has had only monocolor governments, from the center-left Socialists or the center-right Popular Party (PP). However, the financial crisis and the populism that has arisen from it have fragmented the political blocs and have also given impetus to regional nationalists, especially the Catalan independence movement. The government that emerged after the two elections held in 2019 is led by a socialist party that only won 120 of the 350 seats in parliament. After vowing never to do so, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez joined forces with Podemos, a far-left populist party. As he still lacked a majority, he was forced to rely on the Catalan and Basque separatist parties for his investiture as prime minister.
Sánchez has managed the situation quite skillfully. It gives the impression that his government will survive the entire legislature, despite the multiple voices that predicted the failure of such a disparate amalgamation. On November 24, Sánchez obtained within the established term (an achievement in Spain) the green light for his third budgets by the Congress of Deputies, which ensured his approval. However, recent compromises with his allies have infuriated many Spaniards.
The most controversial decision has been the announcement of a reform of the sedition law. Said law was used to judge the organizers of the Catalan independence referendum held unconstitutionally in 2017. Nine of these leaders were found guilty; others (among them, Carles Puigdemont, then regional president) went into exile. In 2021, Sánchez pardoned the nine convicted leaders. Likewise, his government had been hinting for some time that it would reform the sedition law, in force since 1822, alleging that it did not conform to European standards. However, the reform proposal has provoked an outburst of fury; the right has branded him a traitor for allowing the leaders of the 2017 "coup" to get away so well with the sole purpose of ensuring support for the budgets of the Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya.
Another high-voltage controversy has erupted around the Law for the Comprehensive Guarantee of Sexual Freedom, known as the "only yes is yes" law. It has been an initiative of Irene Montero, the Minister of Equality, who comes from Podemos. Passed in August, it requires clear consent expressed by both parties before any sexual relationship. (In the trial for a multiple rape that occurred in Pamplona in 2016 and recorded with a mobile phone, the perpetrators initially received light sentences because the victim had not visibly resisted the aggressors.) The fact is that, since the entry into force of Under the new law, those convicted of sexual offenses have seen their sentences reduced in practice due to the reorganization of the categories of the offence. Prior to its passage, right-wing opponents argued that Montero's bill would lead to arbitrary tribunals and easy convictions. Now they affirm that the minister is responsible for releasing the rapists. The attacks have been especially ferocious by the far-right Vox party.
The left is delighted in responding to the attacks. The PP leads most of the polls, but if it wins the elections (scheduled for the end of next year) it would need the support of Vox to govern. The Spanish left is busy trying to scare voters at the prospect of a Vox government: Facha is an everyday insult in a country where many people remember Francisco Franco, and a few still yearn for him. The new Democratic Memory Law has recently become another source of tension. Its application has led to the exhumation of the bloodthirsty Francoist general Gonzalo Queipo de Llano from a church in Seville.
Commentators have been talking for a long time about "the two Spains", destined to always be at odds. That hostility is hardly noticeable on the streets of Spain, where the temperatures are mild and the atmosphere cordial. However, it poisons Spanish politics, and more so where the parties located at the extremes very often set the tone.
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Translation: Juan Gabriel López Guix
