Spain: Facts

BBC News have a great country profile on Spain which really should be compulsory reading for any expatriate living in Spain, anybody that is considering living in Spain either to work or study, indeed for pretty much anybody that has any interest in Spain at all!

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Located at the crossroads of the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, Europe and Africa, Spain’s history and culture are made up of a rich mix of diverse elements.

Through exploration and conquest, Spain became a world power in the 16th century, and it maintained a vast overseas empire until the early 19th century.

Spain’s modern history is marked by the bitterly fought Spanish Civil War of 1936-39, and the ensuing 36-year dictatorship of General Francisco Franco.

Overview

After Franco’s death in 1975, Spain made the transition to a democratic state and built a successful economy, with King Juan Carlos as head of state.

The constitution of 1978 enshrines respect for linguistic and cultural diversity within a united Spain. The country is divided into 17 regions which all have their own directly elected authorities. The level of autonomy afforded to each region is far from uniform. For example, Catalonia, the Basque Country and Galicia have special status with their own language and other rights.
Andalucia, Navarre, Valencia and the Canaries in turn have more extensive powers than some other regions. Asturias and Aragon have taken steps to consolidate language rights.

In 2006 a Catalan referendum backed by the central government gave the region greater autonomy.

The Catalans won nation status within Spain and the region’s parliament gained extra powers in taxation and judicial matters. The country’s regional picture is a complex and evolving one.

One of Spain’s most serious domestic issues has been tension in the northern Basque region. A violent campaign by the Basque separatist group ETA has led to nearly 850 deaths over the past four decades.

Eta declared a ceasefire in March 2006 saying it wished to see the start of a democratic process for the Basque region. The move divided opinion in Spain.

Tentative moves to negotiate a lasting peace were dealt a blow when Eta carried out a deadly bomb attack at Madrid’s international airport at the end of the year. In June 2007, Eta called off its ceasefire.

Until 2008, the Spanish economy was regarded as one of the most dynamic within the EU. However, the mainstays of the economy were tourism and a booming housing market and construction industry, and so the global economic crisis of 2008-9 hit the country hard.

Spain was tipped into a severe recession and unemployment had reached nearly 20% – more than double the EU average – by the end of 2009.

Spain shares the Iberian peninsula with Portugal and its territory includes the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands and two North African enclaves.

From Velazquez in the seventeenth century, through Goya straddling the eighteenth and nineteenth, to Picasso in the twentieth, Spain has the proudest of traditions in art.

Flamenco music and dance are widely admired around the world while Cervantes’ novel Don Quixote is one of the most popular ever written.

Cinema is much loved and the films of directors such as Pedro Almodovar attract huge audiences.

Facts

Full name: Kingdom of Spain

Population: 45 million (UN 2009)

Capital: Madrid

Area: 505,988 sq km (195,363 sq miles)

Major languages: Spanish (Castilian), Catalan and its variant Valencian, Gallego (Galician), Euskera (Basque)

Major religion: Christianity

Life expectancy: 78 years (men), 84 years (women) (UN)

Monetary unit: 1 euro = 100 cents

Main exports: Transport equipment, agricultural products

GNI per capita: US $31,960 (World Bank, 2008)

Internet domain: .es (.cat for Catalonia)

International dialling code: +34

Leaders

Head of state: King Juan Carlos I

Spaniards honour King Juan Carlos for ensuring the country’s transition to democracy after the death of the former dictator, General Franco, and for saving Spain from a coup attempt in 1981.

Prime minister: Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero

Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who has been in office since 2004, led his governing Socialist Workers’ Party to another victory in elections in March 2008.

The party won by an increased margin, but fell just short of an absolute majority.

The Socialist Workers’ Party won a surprise election victory over Jose Maria Aznar’s conservative Popular Party in March 2004. Polling was overshadowed by a series of explosions on Madrid commuter trains in which 191 people died just days beforehand.

Mr Zapatero is considered to have won the elections because of voter anger over the conservative government’s insistence that armed separatist group Eta was behind the blasts, despite the evidence pointing to Islamist extremists.

Following his election victory, Mr Zapatero described both the war and the occupation of Iraq as a “huge disaster” and pulled Spain’s 1,300 troops out of the country.

He showed confidence that the Basque separatist group Eta was serious about the ceasefire it declared in March 2006 when he indicated a few months later that he would start talks with the organisation.

But in early 2007, after an Eta bomb attack at Madrid airport, he apologised to the nation for having pinned hopes on peace talks with the group. Eta withdrew its ceasefire in June.

The prime minister supported the process by which Catalonia won greater autonomy at a referendum in June 2006.

Mr Zapatero was born in 1960. His grandfather, a Republican army officer, was shot dead during the Civil War. He studied law but his career has been largely devoted to politics.

He joined the Socialist Party while still in his teens and first entered parliament at 26. He became party leader in 2000.

He is married and has two daughters.

Media

Broadcasting in Spain has witnessed a spectacular expansion in recent years with the emergence of new commercial operators and the launch of digital services.

The cable and satellite TV markets are growing steadily and a free-to-air digital terrestrial TV (DTT) service was relaunched in late 2005. Spain aims to switch off the analogue TV signal by 2010.

Home-produced dramas, reality shows and long-running “telenovelas” are staple fare on primetime TV.

Public radio and TV are run by RadioTelevision Espanola (RTVE), which is funded by advertising and state subsidies. As well as public and commercial national TV networks, there are 13 regional stations backed by regional governments and many local stations.

Multichannel TV is offered by the satellite platform Digital Plus.

In spite of the proliferation of print and broadcast media, and their diverse political stances, concerns have been raised about political influence in the media, and particularly in public broadcasting.

The press

El Mundo – Madrid-based daily
El Pais – Madrid-based daily
ABC – Madrid-based daily
La Razon – Madrid-based daily
La Vanguardia – Barcelona-based daily
El Periodico de Catalunya – Barcelona-based daily

Television

TVE – public, services include national networks La Primera and La 2, satellite-delivered TVE Internacional, rolling news channel 24 Horas
Tele Cinco – national, commercial
Antena 3 – national, commercial
Cuatro – national, commercial, formerly Canal+ Espana

Radio

RNE – public, services include speech network Radio 1, cultural network Radio Clasica, youth-oriented Radio 3, news station Radio 5 Todo Noticias
Cadena SER – commercial, operates more than 50 national, regional stations
Onda Cero – commercial
Cadena COPE – church-controlled
Punto Radio – commercial

News agencies

EFE – government-owned
Europa Press – private
Colpisa – private

Timeline

1936-39 – Spanish Civil War: more than 350,000 Spaniards killed.

1939 – General Franco leads Nationalists to victory. Republicans are executed, jailed or exiled.

1946-50 – Franco regime ostracised by United Nations; many countries cut off diplomatic relations.

1955 – Spain admitted to UN.

1959 – Eta is founded with the aim of creating an independent homeland in Spain’s Basque region. The full name of the organisation – Euzkadi Ta Askatasuna – means Basque Fatherland and Freedom.

1961 – Eta’s violent campaign begins with an attempt to derail a train transporting politicians.

1968 – West African colony of Spanish Guinea is granted independence as Equatorial Guinea.

1973 December – Basque nationalists assassinate Prime Minister Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco in Madrid in retaliation for the government’s execution of Basque militants.

Move to democracy

1975 20 November – Franco dies. Succeeded as head of state by King Juan Carlos. With Juan Carlos on the throne, Spain makes transition from dictatorship to democracy.

1977 June – First democratic elections in four decades.

1978 – New constitution confirms Spain as a parliamentary monarchy. Eta’s political wing, Herri Batasuna, is founded.

1980 – 118 people are killed in Eta’s bloodiest year so far.

1981 February – Failed military coup.

1982 – Coup plot by right-wing extremists discovered.

1986 – Spain joins the EEC.

1992 – Summer Olympic Games held in Barcelona. Seville hosts Expo 92. Celebrations mark the 500th anniversary of Columbus’s first voyage to America.

Aznar years

1995 – Leader of opposition Popular Party Jose Maria Aznar survives a car bomb blast.

1996 March – Jose Maria Aznar becomes PM following a stability deal with moderate Catalan and Basque nationalists who hold the balance of power after a general election in which his Popular Party emerges as the winner but fails to win an outright majority.

1997 July – Eta, demanding that Basque prisoners be transferred closer to home, kidnaps and kills Basque councillor Miguel Angel Blanco. Killing sparks national outrage and brings an estimated 6 million Spaniards onto the streets.

1997 December – 23 leaders of Herri Batasuna jailed for seven years for collaborating with Eta – the first time any members of the party have been jailed as a result of Eta links.

1998 April – Crops destroyed and wildlife wiped out when an iron pyrite mine reservoir belonging to a Canadian-Swedish company bursts its banks causing toxic waste spillage. Waterways feeding Europe’s largest wildlife reserve, the Donana national park, are severely contaminated.

1998 September – Eta announces its first indefinite ceasefire since its campaign of violence began.

1999 November – Eta ends its ceasefire, blaming lack of progress in talks with the Spanish government.

2000 – Madrid car bombs mark return to violence.

Aznar’s Popular Party (PP) wins landslide in general elections.

Relations with Britain strained after British nuclear submarine HMS Tireless docks for repairs in Gibraltar despite protests from environmentalists

2001 Parliament grants political recognition to Republican guerrillas – known as the maquis – who continued resisting the nationalist dictator, General Francisco Franco, after the Spanish Civil War ended in 1939.

2002 January – Peseta replaced by Euro.

2002 June – Eta suspected of being behind bomb blasts in several tourist resorts as EU summit held in Seville.

The summit is also marked by a general strike by nearly a million people protesting at government moves to cut employment benefits.

2002 July – Morocco sends troops to counter alleged illegal activities on disputed rocky outcrop of Perejil off Moroccan coast. Spain sends forces to eject them and gunboats to guard its enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla. Spain pulls troops out after Spanish, Moroccan foreign ministers agree to restore status quo, leaving Perejil unoccupied.

2002 August – A court suspends the radical Basque separatist party Batasuna for three years because of its suspected links with Eta.

2002 November – North-west coastline suffers ecological disaster after oil tanker Prestige breaks up and sinks about 130 miles out to sea.

2003 March – Indefinite ban imposed on Basque separatist Batasuna party.

2003 May – 62 Spanish peacekeepers returning from duty in Afghanistan are killed when their chartered Ukrainian plane crashes in Turkey.

Madrid attacks

2004 March – 191 people killed in explosions on packed rush-hour trains in Madrid in near-simultaneous pre-election attacks. An Islamic group with links to al-Qaeda is later blamed.

With Spain still in mourning, the Socialists under Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero defy earlier opinion polls and win a general election.

2004 April – Mr Zapatero is sworn in as prime minister; he orders Spanish troops to be withdrawn from Iraq. The last troops leave in May.

2005 February – Car bomb explodes in Madrid, injuring about 40 people. Eta is believed to be behind the attack.

Spain begins the process of granting legal amnesty for up to 800,000 undocumented immigrants.

2005 February – Voters approve the EU constitution in a referendum.

2005 May – Government offers peace talks with Eta if the group disarms.

2005 June – Parliament defies Roman Catholic Church by legalising gay marriage and granting homosexual couples same adoption and inheritance rights as heterosexual ones.

2005 September-October – At least 11 die and many more are injured in a series of mass attempts by African migrants to enter the enclaves of Melilla and Ceuta from Morocco in a bid to reach Spain. Spain reviews decision to deport those who do get through back to Morocco after expressions of international concern.

2006 January – Lt Gen Jose Mena Aguado sacked as head of army ground forces after suggesting that the military might take action in Catalonia if the region gains too much autonomy.

Eta ceasefire

2006 March – Eta declares a ceasefire. In June, Prime Minister Zapatero says the government will hold peace talks with the group.

2006 June – Voters in Catalonia back proposals to give the region greater autonomy as well as the status of a nation within Spain.

2006 August-September – Spain tries to rally international support over illegal immigration from Africa. Canary Islands officials say more than 22,000 immigrants have arrived on the islands since the start of the year and hundreds have died while attempting the sea crossing.

2006 December – Prime Minister Zapatero suspends moves to seek dialogue with Eta after a car bomb attack at a Madrid airport.

2007 February – Trial begins of 29 suspects charged with involvement in the 2004 Madrid train bombings.

2007 June – Eta calls off ceasefire.

2007 August – Eta blamed for Basque country car bomb.

2007 September – Leading Eta bomb maker arrested near Toulouse, France.

2007 October – Several people are found guilty and given jail sentences for the Madrid train bombings in 2004.

2007 November – Parliament passes a bill formally denouncing Franco’s rule and ordering the removal of all Franco-era statues and symbols from streets and buildings.

King Juan Carlos visits the Spanish-held enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, angering Morocco which demands the return of the territories.

2008 March – Parliamentary elections. The ruling Socialist Workers’ Party wins re-election with an increased margin, but falls short of an absolute majority.

2008 April – Prime Minister Zapatero unveils new cabinet, which for the first time includes more women than men.

Economic crisis

2008 October – Unemployment rate hits 11.3%, with nearly 2.6 million people out of work.

2009 January – Spanish economy enters recession for first time since 1993.

2009 March – Unemployment soars to 17.4%, with over 4 million people jobless.

2009 May – The parliament of the Basque region votes in the first non-Nationalist regional government in more than 30 years, under Socialist leadership, following elections in March.

The government unveils plans to liberalise Spain’s relatively restrictive abortion laws; the conservative opposition People’s Party says it will challenge the move in court.

2009 July – Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos visits Gibraltar – the first visit by a Spanish minister in 300 years.

2009 November – Unemployment rate rises to 19.4% – more than double the EU average.

2010 January – Spain assumes EU presidency.

2010 February – Thousands of workers demonstrate against government spending cuts and plans to raise the retirement age by two years to 67 – the first mass labour protests since the governing Socialist Workers’ Party came to power in 2004.

2010 March – Unemployment rate hits 20% for first time in nearly 13 years.

2010 May – Parliament approves 15bn-euro (£13bn) austerity package.

Original Source: BBC News