plik

Title

Freedom in the World 2010 - Spain

Publisher

Freedom House

Country

Spain

Publication Date

1 June 2010

Cite as

Freedom

House, Freedom

the

World

2010

Spain,

June

2010, available

at:

http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/4c1a1e9cc.html [accessed 3 September 2010]

Freedom in the World 2010 - Spain

Capital: Madrid
Population: 49,916,000

Political Rights Score: 1 *
Civil Liberties Score: 1 *
Status: Free

Overview

In 2009, government plans to liberalize abortion laws were met with criticism from groups
including opposition conservatives and the Catholic Church. The Basque parliament voted in
a non-nationalist government in May for the first time in 30 years, sparking a bombing spree
by the Basque separatist group Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA).

Peninsular  Spain's  current  borders  were  largely  established  by  the  16th  century,  and  after  a
period of great colonial expansion and wealth, the country declined in relation to its European
rivals.  Most  of  its  overseas  possessions  were  lost  in  wars  or  revolts  by  the  end  of  the  19th
century. The Spanish Civil War of 1936-39 ended in victory for General Francisco Franco's right-
wing Nationalists, who executed, jailed, and exiled the leftist Republicans. During Franco's long
rule,  many  countries  cut  off  diplomatic  ties,  and  his  regime  was  ostracized  by  the  United
Nations from 1946 to 1955. The militant Basque separatist group Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA),
or Basque Fatherland and Freedom, was formed in 1959 with the aim of creating an independent
Basque homeland and went on to carry out a campaign of terrorist bombings and other illegal
activities.  After  a  transitional  period  following  Franco's  death  in  1975,  Spain  emerged  as  a
parliamentary  democracy,  joining  the  European  Economic  Community,  the  precursor  to  the
European Union (EU), in 1986.

During  the  2004  parliamentary  elections,  the  Spanish  Socialist  Workers'  Party  (PSOE)  defeated
the conservative Popular Party (PP), which had been in power for 11 years. However, lacking an
outright majority, the PSOE relied on regionalist parties to support its legislation. The elections
came only days after multiple terrorist bombings of commuter trains in Madrid that killed almost
200  people.  The  conservative  government  blamed  ETA,  which  angered  voters  when  it  was
discovered  that  the  attacks  were  carried  out  by  Islamic  fundamentalists  in  response  to  the
conservative government's support of the U.S.-led war in Iraq. After becoming prime minister,
the  PSOE's  Jose  Luis  Rodriguez  Zapatero  pulled  Spain's  troops  out  of  Iraq.  In  2007,  a  Spanish
court  handed  down  long  prison  sentences  for  21  of  the  28  defendants  charged  in  connection
with  the  2004  bombings;  seven  of  the  accused  were  acquitted.  In  2008,  a  key  suspect  in  the
bombings was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

ETA announced its first ceasefire in March 2006, but peace talks with the Spanish government
broke down in January 2007, after the separatist group claimed responsibility for a December
2006 bombing in a parking garage at the Barajas Airport. The Supreme Court banned hundreds
of candidates from participating in 2007 local elections in the Basque region, accusing them of
links to ETA.

Parliamentary elections held in March 2008 returned the PSOE to power. The PSOE, which had
focused on liberal reforms, such as gender equality and same-sex marriage, won 43.5 percent of
the vote in the lower house, followed by the PP, which captured 40.1 percent.

For the first time in 30 years, the Basque Nationalist Party lost its absolute majority in the
Basque parliament election in March 2009. The new coalition of the PSOE and the center-right
PP pledged to focus on security and economy and not press for regional autonomy.

ETA carried out at least 17 violent attacks throughout 2009, marking the 50th anniversary of the
group's  founding.  In  June,  a  senior  police  officer  was  killed  in  a  bomb  attack  in  Bilbao,  the
capital of the Basque region. The resort island of Majorca was hit with a series of bombings in
July,  including  an  explosion  that  killed  two  police  officers,  the  deadliest  attack  by  ETA  since
2007.  In  October,  French  authorities  arrested  two  leaders  of  ETA,  including  Aitor  Elizaran
Aguilar,  who  had  allegedly  replaced  Javier  Lopez  Pena,  a  senior  ETA  commander  captured  by
French police in 2008.

In  September,  the  government  released  plans  to  liberalize  abortion  laws  in  Spain,  making  the
procedure "on demand" for the first time in this primarily Catholic country. The move was met
with  criticism  from  the  opposition  conservatives  and  the  Catholic  Church.  A  massive  anti-
abortion  protest  in  mid-October  sponsored  by  40  religious  and  civic  groups  called  on  the
government to  repeal  the  bill.  In  December,  the  bill  was  passed  by  the  Congress  of  Deputies,
and final approval from the Senate was expected in early 2010.

In October, parliament passed a controversial law that increases the time illegal immigrants can
be held before deportation from 40 to 60 days and imposes restrictions on parents joining their
immigrant children.

Political Rights and Civil Liberties

Spain  is  an  electoral  democracy.  The  Congress  of  Deputies,  the  lower  house  of  the  National
Assembly, has 350 members elected from party lists in provincial constituencies. The Senate has
259 members, with 208 elected directly and 51 chosen by regional legislatures. Members of both
the  Senate  and  Congress  serve  four-year  terms.  Following  legislative  elections,  the  prime
minister, known as the president of the government, is selected by the monarch and is usually
the  leader  of  the  majority  party  or  coalition.  The  candidate  must  also  be  elected  by  the
National  Assembly.  The  country's  50  provinces  are  divided  into  17  autonomous  regions  with
varying degrees of power, in addition to the two North African enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla.

People generally have the right to organize in political parties and other competitive groups of
their choice. The Basque separatist Batasuna party, which had previously garnered between 5
and 10 percent of the regional vote, was permanently banned in 2003 for its alleged ties to the
armed group ETA.

Spain was ranked 32 out of 180 countries surveyed in Transparency International's 2009
Corruption Perceptions Index. In July, the country's espionage chief stepped down after being
accused of using taxpayer money to fund his exotic vacations.

The country has a free and lively press, with more than 100 newspapers covering a wide range
of perspectives and actively investigating high-level corruption. Daily newspaper ownership,

however, is concentrated within large media groups like Prisa and Zeta. Journalists who oppose
the  political  views  of  ETA  are  often  targeted  by  the  group.  ETA carried out a  bomb attack  in
January  2009  near  a  TV  repeater  station  in  Guipuzcoa  Province  and  another  in  November  in
front of a local newspaper office in Pamplona. In December, two Spanish journalists were given
suspended sentences of one year and nine months for revealing state secrets by publishing the
names of people implicated in a registration scandal involving the Popular Party; they were also
barred  from  practicing  journalism  during  the  period  of  their  suspended  sentences.  Internet
access is not restricted.

Freedom  of  religion  is  guaranteed  through  constitutional  and  legal  protections.  Roman
Catholicism  is  the dominant  religion  and  enjoys  privileges  that other  religions  do not,  such as
financing  through  the  tax  system.  Jews,  Muslims,  and  Protestants  have  official  status  through
bilateral agreements with the state, while other groups (including Jehovah's Witnesses and the
Mormons) have no such agreements. The government does not restrict academic freedom.

The  constitution  provides  for  freedom  of  assembly,  and  the  government  respects  this  right  in
practice.  Domestic  and  international  nongovernmental  organizations  operate  without
government  restrictions.  With  the  exception  of  members  of  the  military,  workers  are  free  to
organize  and  join  unions  of  their  choice  and  to  strike.  About  15  percent  of  the  workforce  is
unionized. In February 2009, almost half of all magistrates went on strike for 24 hours to protest
their working conditions, stressing the need for 1,000 additional judges to bring the country up
to European standards.

The  constitution  provides  for  an  independent  judiciary.  However,  there  have  been  concerns
about the functioning of the judicial system, including the impact of media pressure on sensitive
issues such as immigration and Basque terrorism. Baltasar Garzon, the most controversial judge
in Spain, faced the Supreme Court in September 2009 on charges by a right-wing group that he
had  overstepped  his  judicial  powers  with  his  2008  inquiry  into  the  atrocities  committed  by
General Francisco Franco. The case had not gone to trial by year's end.There have been reports
of  police  abuse  of  prisoners,  especially  immigrants.  Police  can  also  hold  suspects  of  certain
terrorism-related  crimes  for  up  to  five  days  with  access  only  to  a  public  lawyer.  Prison
conditions generally meet international standards.

Spain's universal justice law allows judges to try suspects for crimes committed abroad if they
are not facing prosecution in their home country. However, in June 2009, Spain's lower house
voted in favor of limiting the universal justice law to cases involving either victims with Spanish
citizenship or some other link to Spain, as well as cases where the alleged perpetrators are in
Spain. Prior to this change, the country's attorney general in April rejected an attempt to bring
top U.S. officials to trial for torture allegations at Guantanamo Bay, saying the case had no
merit as the defendants were not present at the time of the crimes.

Women  enjoy  legal  protections  against  rape,  domestic  abuse,  and  sexual  harassment  in  the
workplace. However, violence against women, particularly within the home, remains a serious
problem. Women hold 36 percent of the seats in the lower house. Legislation enacted in 2005
legalized  same-sex  marriages  and  allowed  gay  couples  to  adopt  children.  Trafficking  in  men,
women, and children for the purpose of sexual exploitation and forced labor remains a problem
in  Spain.  However,  the  government  prosecuted  135  trafficking  cases  in  2008,  33  more  than  in
2007.

*Countries are ranked on a scale of 1-7, with 1 representing the highest level of freedom and 7
representing the lowest level of freedom.