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Spain | Freedom House Spain | Freedom House https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2019/spain A. ELECTORAL PROCESS: 11 / 12 (+1) A1. Was the current head of government or other chief national authority elected through free and fair elections? 4 / 4 Following legislative elections, the monarch selects a candidate for prime minister, generally the leader of the party or coalition with a majority in the lower house. The parliament then votes on the selected candidate. Inconclusive elections in December 2015 and June 2016 led to months of fruitless coalition talks, wither neither the PP nor the PSOE able to assemble a majority. The impasse finally ended when the PSOE agreed to allow incumbent prime minister Rajoy to establish a minority government in late 2016. In June 2018, after several PP members were convicted on corruption charges and the PP itself was ordered to pay a large fine, the PSOE won a motion of no confidence against the government, forcing Rajoy to resign and allowing Sánchez, the PSOE leader, to form his own minority government. The leftist party Unidos Podemos and the Catalan and Basque nationalist parties voted in support of the motion, while the center-right Ciudadanos and the PP voted against. A2. Were the current national legislative representatives elected through free and fair elections? 4 / 4 The lower house of Spain’s bicameral parliament, the Congress of Deputies, is composed of 350 members elected in multimember constituencies for each of Spain’s provinces, with the exception of the North African enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, each of which has one single-member constituency. The Senate has 266 members, 208 of whom are elected directly, and 58 of whom are chosen by regional legislatures. Members of both chambers serve four-year terms. Spain’s elections are generally considered free and fair. In the 2016 parliamentary elections, the PP emerged with 137 seats in the Chamber of Deputies, followed by the PSOE with 85, Unidos Podemos with 45, Ciudadanos with 32, and several smaller parties with the remainder. The PP and its allies also took 130 directly elected seats in the Senate, giving them an overall majority of 151 in the upper chamber; the PSOE placed second with a total of 63 seats. Regional elections in Catalonia were held in December 2017 after Rajoy dissolved the regional government in October in 1 of 8 7/29/2019, 2:47 PM Spain | Freedom House https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2019/spain the wake of the illegal referendum on independence. Ciudadanos, which strongly opposes Catalan independence, led the voting with 36 seats, but the three separatist parties won a combined 70 seats in the 135-seat legislature. In May 2018, the legislature chose Quim Torra, a separatist independent, to lead a new regional government, ending a seven-month period of direct rule from Madrid. Andalusia held regional assembly elections in December 2018. The PSOE led with 33 of the 109 seats, but right-leaning parties—the PP , Ciudadanos, and the far-right Spanish nationalist party Vox—collectively won a majority and were expected to form a new regional government in 2019. The 12 seats secured by Vox marked the first time since Spain’s transition to democracy following the death of dictator Francisco Franco in 1975 that a far-right party was represented in a regional legislature. A3. Are the electoral laws and framework fair, and are they implemented impartially by the relevant election management bodies? 4 / 4 (+1) Spain’s constitution and electoral laws provide the legal framework for democratic elections, and they are generally implemented fairly. The initiation and conduct of the October 2017 independence referendum in Catalonia featured a number of fundamental flaws. The exercise was prohibited by the courts on constitutional grounds, and the actions of both regional authorities and the central government contributed to a chaotic environment that did not allow for fair and transparent balloting. The situation stabilized significantly during 2018 with the formation of new regional and national governments, even if the underlying dispute and numerous criminal cases against Catalan officials remained unresolved. Score Change: The score improved from 3 to 4 because there was no repetition of a 2017 constitutional crisis surrounding a flawed referendum on Catalan independence. B. POLITICAL PLURALISM AND PARTICIPATION: 16 / 16 B1. Do the people have the right to organize in different political parties or other competitive political groupings of their choice, and is the system free of undue obstacles to the rise and fall of these competing parties or groupings? 4 / 4 Citizens are free to organize political parties, which are able to function without interference in practice. While the PP and the PSOE once dominated the political system, corruption scandals and persistent economic woes in recent years have aided the rise of new alternatives including Unidos Podemos and Ciudadanos. B2. Is there a realistic opportunity for the opposition to increase its support or gain power through 2 of 8 7/29/2019, 2:47 PM Spain | Freedom House https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2019/spain elections? 4 / 4 There have been multiple democratic transfers of power between rival parties since Spain returned to democracy in the late 1970s. The new PSOE government that took office in 2018 ended more than six years of PP rule. B3. Are the people’s political choices free from domination by the military, foreign powers, religious hierarchies, economic oligarchies, or any other powerful group that is not democratically accountable? 4 / 4 Voting and political affairs in general are largely free from undue interference by unelected or external forces. B4. Do various segments of the population (including ethnic, religious, gender, LGBT, and other relevant groups) have full political rights and electoral opportunities? 4 / 4 Women and minority groups enjoy full political rights. Women are relatively well represented in politics, holding approximately 39 percent of the seats in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. In the PSOE government formed in 2018, women held 61 percent of the ministerial positions. Spain’s system of regional autonomy grants significant powers of self-governance to the country’s traditional national minorities, including Catalans and Basques. The autonomy of Catalonia, suspended following the illegal referendum in 2017, was restored after the region held elections and installed new leadership in May 2018. Some of the Catalan officials and activists who were charged with offenses such as rebellion, sedition, and misuse of public funds as a result of the referendum remained in pretrial detention during 2018, while others, including former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, remained outside the country. Meanwhile, the new PSOE government in Madrid sought to ease tensions, in part by moving the incarcerated politicians to Catalan prisons and meeting for talks with the regional government. In December, however, Sánchez threatened to send security forces to Catalonia, accusing regional authorities of mismanaging large proindependence protests. C. FUNCTIONING OF GOVERNMENT: 11 / 12 C1. Do the freely elected head of government and national legislative representatives determine the policies of the government? 4 / 4 Elected officials are generally free to make and implement laws and policies without undue interference. C2. Are safeguards against official corruption strong and effective? 3 / 4 Concerns about official corruption often center on party financing. Though most party expenses are funded by the state, 3 of 8 7/29/2019, 2:47 PM Spain | Freedom House https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2019/spain a 2007 law confirmed the right of political parties to use commercial bank loans as well. In 2012, Spain strengthened rules on political financing by restricting access to loans, increasing transparency, and establishing an audit framework. In 2015, new legislation prohibited banks from forgiving debt owed by political parties. Although the courts have a solid record of investigating and prosecuting corruption cases, the system is often overburdened, and cases move slowly. Among other high-profile proceedings during the year, in May 2018, after 10 years of investigation, the courts handed down convictions for 29 of the 37 people indicted over their alleged involvement in the illegal financing of the PP from 1999 to 2005. The party itself was found to have benefited from the schemes and was ordered to pay a €240,000 ($280,000) fine. C3. Does the government operate with openness and transparency? 4 / 4 Legal safeguards to ensure government transparency include asset-disclosure rules for public officials and laws governing conflicts of interest. The Transparency Act, which took effect in 2014, is meant to facilitate public access to government records, though freedom of information activists have reported onerous procedures and called for improvements to the law. D. FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AND BELIEF: 14 / 16 (−1) D1. Are there free and independent media? 3 / 4 Spain has a free press that covers a wide range of perspectives and actively investigates high-level corruption. However, consolidation of private ownership and political interference at public outlets pose threats to media independence. In June 2018, the new PSOE government issued a decree that temporarily replaced the board of directors of the Spanish Radio and Television Corporation (RTVE) until a stalled law to select the board through a public contest could be implemented. The law was finalized in July, and in December a group of board candidates was presented for consideration by the parliament. Separately, at year’s end the leaders of the regional public broadcasters in Catalonia were under investigation for allegedly using the outlets as a platform to promote the illegal 2017 independence referendum. A controversial public safety law that took effect in 2015, nicknamed the “gag law” by its critics, established large fines for offenses including spreading images that could endanger police officers or protected facilities.
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