SPANISH TRANSITION

1. The Spanish Transition

2. Definition:
It was the peaceful step forward
from a dictatorship to a democratic
system in Spain .

3. Chronology: The Transition began with the Franco´s
death in 1975 and it finished betwen 1977-1982.
Milestones of the end of transition
.- 1977: the first democratic and fair election was called
since 1936
.- 1978: A democratic constitution was passed
.- 1982: the left reached the political power through fair
and democratic election

9. After some months of political uncertainty, the
king Juan Carlos chose Adolfo Suárez as Prime
Minister. In July 1976.
This election was controversial because Suárez
was a man of the Old Regime. He was director
of the public television and a member of
“Falange”(a pro-Franco political movement)

10. Adolfo Suárez,
Spanish prime
minister (1976-
1981)

11. Despite the general distrust towards
Suárez, he proved to be engaged with a
democratic Spain.
Suárez began to speak with political
leaders of the opposition in order to
implement a democratic regime in
Spain

13. The Spanish Transition was not a revolution,
but a reform that respected the Francoist
laws (for example the law of referemdum
that allowed to organize a referemdum to
consult people)

14. An unexpected event:
The “Harakiri” of the Francoist Parliament.
Usually politician make all the posible thing to
keep themselves in power, but the Francoist
deputies voted in favor of the “Political Reform
Act” that meant the end of their political careers.
Maybe they understood the Francoism was the past
and democracy the future

16. This new Political Reform Act was passed by the Spanish
people in a referendum called in 1977 with a wide
majority

17. This Political Reform Act allowed to call a general election
(the first one since 41years ago)
This election was done in a peaceful environment

18. Another brilliant political idea was to make
a constitution which gave expression to all
the political options. It was a way to assure
the satisfaction of the bigger possible
number of citizens and political parties
with the new political regulation.

19. The disadvantage of this option
was the ambiguity of the
constitution. In some subjects
such as the abortion, the private
property, the expropiations, the
unity of the nation, etc. the
constitution says, at the same
text, an idea and the opposite
one

20. The “Constitution parents” a
group of seven politicians from
different political trends who
drew up the constitution.
They had a lot of meetings an
exchanges of ideas to make a
common body of laws.
Each one did cessions to make
a general arrangement

22. The new changes brought by the Spanish Transition and
the constitution were:
.- A parlamentary regime
.- Political pluralism
.- Free election to choose people who hold public offices
.- Freedom of
.- Press
.- Opinion
.- conscience
.- worship
.- expression
.- assembly
.- etc

23. .- Rigth to divorce
.- Legal equality for women (a slow process)
.- A decentralization (asked by many people in
some regions such as Catalonia and Basque
Country)
etc., etc.

24. Was it all nice in the Spanish
Transition?
Unfortunately it was not.
Some terrible problems affected
the Spanish people in this time:

25. .- Terrorism (nationalist, extreme right-wing
and extreme left-wing terrorisms)
.- Inflation
.- Economic crisis
.- Unemployment ( a recurrent problem in the
recent history of Spain)

26. .- Attempted coups made by the military linked
with the extreme right, fortunately failed.
.- Separatist tensions
.- Etc.