Spanish Political Evolution: Autonomy and the PSOE Era (1982-1996)
State of Autonomy
Title VIII of the 1978 Constitution regulated the decentralization of certain powers of the state and the creation of Autonomous Communities. All Autonomous Communities have:
- A statute approved by the courts, including the name, territorial delimitation, symbols, institutions, and powers assumed.
- Institutions:
- An autonomous Parliament, elected by universal suffrage, that makes the autonomous laws.
- A government consisting of a Chairman and Councilors.
- A Superior Court of Justice.
- Competencies and functions in diverse political, economic, social, and cultural issues. In some cases, competencies are exclusive to the Community, and other competencies that are not attributed exclusively to the state by the constitution can be assumed by the communities.
- A financing system that for most of the communities is based on income and taxes as per the State agency (33% of personal income tax and 35% of VAT) and VAT receipts.
The autonomous map was definitively configured into 17 communities and two autonomous city governments.
The PSOE (1982-1996)
In the October 1982 elections, the PSOE obtained an absolute majority after a campaign in which it presented itself as the engine of change the country needed. Felipe Gonzalez was elected president, and the PSOE remained in power for four terms. The absolute majority was renewed in the 1986 and 1989 elections, but not in 1993 when the PSOE had to find support from other parties to govern. Concrete social change was sought through a comprehensive reform program whose priority was the fight against the economic crisis, the rationalization of public administrations, and progress towards the welfare state.
To reactivate the economy, measures were taken to ensure financial stability (bank restructuring), reduce inflation, and stimulate private investment, while launching a restructuring of the productive apparatus. The industrial reconversion was an adaptation of productive sector processes to international market requirements and entry into the EEC. It allowed for financial recovery and technological adaptation but provoked the reduction of industrial capacity and employment. The closure of enterprises and the increase in unemployment triggered important labor disputes, such as those at Altos Hornos del Mediterraneo (Sagunto) and shipyards in Galicia, Andalusia, and the Basque Country.
The government began a process of attrition, promoted in part by the economic reforms of the first governments. There had been a deterioration in its relations with the unions because the first efforts at economic restructuring and modernization had been borne by the workers. Strong opposition from CCOO to some of the government’s measures was joined in 1988 by the UGT. The result was the convening of a general strike on December 14, 1988, which met with remarkable success in terms of participation. (For the first time, a socialist union, the UGT, supported a strike against a government of the same political leaning). In response to the serious situation of tension, the government responded with a series of social and labor measures between 1990 and 1995. Free universal healthcare was established, the unemployment protection system was strengthened, and the public pension system was consolidated and ensured through the Toledo Pact.
But in the early 1990s, the trajectories of the Socialist Party and the union began to diverge, with rising dissension between the two great socialist leaders, Felipe Gonzalez and Alfonso Guerra. The most serious situation occurred as a result of some corruption cases attributed to persons connected with the government (cases involving Luis Roldan, director general of the Guardia Civil; Vice President Juan Guerra’s brother; or Mariano Rubio, the governor of the Bank of Spain). Added to the corruption was the “dirty war” against terrorism, which involved a certain tolerance by the authorities towards the GAL (Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberacion), groups of gunmen linked to sectors of the police and the extreme right who had perpetrated thirty attacks against suspected members of ETA between 1983 and 1987. Given this situation, early elections were called for March 3, 1996.