News, February 2004

News Theme: Spanish Constitution is 25 years old

On 6th December, 1978, the Spanish Constitution was formally signed by the king, Juan Carlos and political leaders. Spain ceased to be a dictatorship and began a so far successful period of peace (mostly) and prosperity under democratic rule. As the 25th anniversary has approached, the consensus which held the constitution in high respect over these years has begun to break.

In particular, the Basque Country feels that it has never been fully appreciated and wants to express itself politically in a more independent way than allowed by the constitution. Other regions, such as Catalonia, are also pushing for more autonomy and possible minor tweaks of the constitution, but nothing like the Basque attempt at redefining itself. Other regional leaders have gone on record over the few days preceding the 6th to state their support of the level of autonomy given in the Constitution. The speaker of the national Congress said the current political situation is no moment to consider changes to the Consitution, but an opinion poll shows 69.4% of the population is in favour of making changes to the Constitution now

To read the Spanish Constitution for yourself, go to this site: http://www.senado.es/constitu_i/indices/constit_insis.html

This was also a busy holiday weekend in Spain. In addition to celebrating the 6th, 'Day of the Constitution', the 8th is an important Catholic religious holiday, 'The Immaculate Conception". In case you do not realise, this does not refer to the conception of Jesus in Mary's womb, but of 'the virgin' in the womb of Santa Anna. Anyway, many Spaniards took full advantage of the holiday weekend to travel, do Christmas shopping and engage in other leisure activities. With bad weather, there was a high risk of accidents on the roads. 76 died and a similar number were seriously injured in traffic accidents.