Title

Freedom in the World 2010 - Spain

Publisher

Freedom House

Country

Spain

Publication Date

1 June 2010

Cite as

Freedom

House, Freedom

in

the

World

2010

-

Spain,

1

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.

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