The 1978 constitution marked the end of Francoism and the country’s first steps on the road to democracy. But a series of institutional crises, driven by political corruption and Catalan nationalism, has spurred a growing sense that the country is ripe for another upheaval.[...]
If there’s one point on which defenders and critics of the “transition” agree, it’s that the constitution’s success depended on a remarkable degree of consensus. Former members of the right-wing Franco regime worked together with moderates and leftists — some of whom had been in jail or exile during the dictatorship.[...]
But the last decade has corroded Spain’s self-perception of a model democratic state. Dozens of corruption scandals rocked the Socialist Workers’ Party and the conservative Popular Party, the two major political parties that have dominated national politics since the transition. Coming in the wake of the 2008 economic crisis that left millions of Spaniards out of work and impoverished, it left the country dispirited and distrustful.[...]
Although 70 percent of Spaniards want constitutional reform of some sort, according to a recent poll by the Center for Sociological Research (CIS), the question is how — and how far.
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