Spain is located in southern Europe, bordering Portugal, France, and the Mediterranean Sea. The dominant religion is Roman Catholicism, though only about 70% of Spaniards identify as such and many do not regularly attend services. Spain has a parliamentary constitutional monarchy government, with King Juan Carlos I as head of state and Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy as head of government. The main political parties are the conservative People's Party and the center-left Spanish Socialist Workers' Party.

1. Politics of Spain
Benedict (Viktor) Gombocz

2. Geography of Spain
 Location: Southern Europe, bordering the
Mediterranean Sea, North Atlantic
Ocean, Bay of Biscay, and Pyrenees
Mountains, between Portugal and France
 Area
◦ Total: 505,370 sq km
◦ Country comparison to the world: 52
◦ Land: 498,980 sq km
◦ Water: 6,390 sq km (note: there are two self-
governing cities – Ceuta and Melilla – and 17 self-
governing communities, including the Balearic
Islands and Canary Islands, and three small
Spanish islands off Morocco’s coast – Islas
Chafarinas, Peñón de Alhucemas, and Peñón de
Vélez de la Gomera
 Area – comparative: Slightly more than twice
the size of Oregon
 Land boundaries:
◦ Total: 1,917.8 km
◦ Border countries: Andorra 63.7 km, France 623
km, Gibraltar 1.2 km, Portugal 1,214 km, Morocco
(Ceuta) 6.3 km, Morocco (Melilla) 9.6 km
 Coastline: 4,964 km

3. Physical Map of Spain

4. Religion in Spain
 Roman Catholicism is by a long way the dominate
branch of Christianity present in Spain.
 According to a February 2013 study conducted by
the Spanish Center of Sociological
Research, approximately 70.5% of Spaniards
identify themselves as Roman Catholics, 3.1%
other faith, and almost 24.1% non-religious.
 Most Spaniards do not partake in religious
services on a regular basis; the same study
shows that of those Spaniards who self-identify as
religious, 56% attends mass a few times per
year, 15% go to mass many times per year, 9%
some time every month, and 16% every Sunday
or numerous times every week.
 Even though a majority of Spaniards are Roman
Catholics, most, in particular the younger
generation, overlook the Church’s conventional
ethical principles, including pre-marital sex, sexual
orientation, or contraception.
 The total number of parish priests has
diminished from 24,300 in 1975 to 19,307 in
2005; the number of Nuns likewise declined
6.9% between 2000-2005.

5. Religion statistics
 Roman Catholic 94%
 Other 6%

6. Overview of Spain’s political
system
 The politics of Spain functions under the framework
established by the 1978 constitution.
 Spain is a social and democratic state, with the national
sovereignty is vested in the people, from which the
State’s powers come.
 Spain’s form of government is a parliamentary
monarchy, i.e., a social representative, democratic
constitutional monarchy where the head of state is the
monarch and the PM – whose official title is “President
of the Government” – is the head of government.
 The government, which includes the PM, the deputy
PMs, and other ministers (which jointly make up the
Cabinet, or Council of Ministers), exercises executive
power.
 Legislative power is vested in the Cortes Generales
(General Courts), a bicameral parliament represented
by the Congress of Deputies and the Senate.
 The judiciary, independent of both the executive and the
legislature, directs justice on the King’s behalf by judges
and magistrates.
 The most supreme court in Spain is the Supreme Court
of Spain, with control in all Spanish territories; it is higher
than all in all affairs, excluding constitutional
issues, which are the authority of a separate court, the
Constitutional Court of Spain.

7. Overview of Spain’s political system
– cont.
 The political structure of Spain is a multi-party structure, although two parties, since the
1990s, have been predominant in politics: the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) and
the People’s Party (PP).
 Regional parties, chiefly the Basque Nationalist Party (EAJ-PNV-PNB) from the Basque
Country, and Convergence and Union (CiU) and the Socialists’ Party of Catalonia (PSC) from
Catalonia, have likewise played large roles in Spanish politics.
 Members of the Congress of Deputies are chosen through proportional representation; the
government is formed through the party or coalition that has the Congress’ trust, generally the
party with the biggest number of seats.
 Since the Spanish transition to democracy, there has not been a coalition government;
consequently, a party’s failure to win an absolute majority results in minority governments.
 Regional government functions under a system called the state of autonomies, a highly
decentralized structure of administration modeled off asymmetrical devolution to the
“nationalities and regions” that make up the nation, and in which the nation, by way of the
central government, maintains complete sovereignty.
 The “nationalities and regions”, exercising the freedom to autonomy permitted by the
constitution, have been created as 17 self-governing communities and two self-governing
cities.
 The form of government of every self-governing community and self-governing city is
additionally modeled off a parliamentary structure, with the executive authority vested on a
“president” and a Council of Ministers elected by and liable to a unicameral legislative
assembly.

8. Government of Spain
 Capital (and largest city): Madrid
 Official language(s): Spanish
◦ Recognised regional languages:
Basque, Catalan, Galician, Occitan
◦ Partially recognised languages:
Aragonese, Asturian, Leonese
 Demonym: Spanish, Spaniard
 Government: Unitary parliamentary
constitutional monarchy
 King: Juan Carlos I
 Prime Minister: Mariano Rajoy
 Deputy Prime Minister: Soraya Sáenz
de Santamaría
 Legislature: General Courts
 Upper house: Senate
 Lower house: Congress of Deputies

9. Political parties in the Congress of
Deputies
 People’s Party (Partido Popular, PP)
 Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (Partido Socialista
Obrero Español, PSOE)
 United Left (Izquierda Unida, IU)
 Union, Progress and Democracy (Unión Progreso y
Democracia, UPyD)
 Convergence and Union (Convergència i Unió, CiU)
 Amaiur (Amaiur)
 Basque Nationalist Party – PNV (Euzko Alderdi
Jeltzalea; Partido Nacionalista Vasco; Parti National
Basque)
 Republican Left of Catalonia (Esquerra Republicana de
Catalunya, ERC)
 Galician Nationalist Bloc (Bloque Nacionalista
Galego, BNG)
 Canarian Coalition (Coalición Canaria, CC)
 Initiative for Catalonia Greens (Iniciativa per Catalunya
Verds, ICV)
 Commitment Coalition (Coalición Canaria)
 Asturian Forum (Foro Austurias, FAC)
 Yes to the Future (Gerora Bai, GBai)
 Navarrese People’s Union (Unión del Pueblo
Navarro, UPN)
 Aragonese Union (Chunta Aragonesista, CHA)

10. Juan Carlos I
 Born in Rome on 5 January 1938.
 Current King of Spain, since 22 November 1975.
 Was named by General Francisco Franco as the next
head of state, in 1969; became King on 22 November
1975, two days after Franco died, making him the first
reigning monarch since 1931.
 Introduced changes, subsequent to being crowned, to
dismantle the Franco régime and begin Spain’s
transition to democracy; this led to the ratification of the
1978 Spanish Constitution in a referendum, establishing
a constitutional monarchy.
 Additionally played a large role in stopping the coup
attempt of 1981.
 The monarch, as said by the Spanish Constitution, is
the head-of-state and commander-in-chief of the
Spanish Armed Forces and additionally plays a role in
advancing Ibero-Americans, the “nations of its historical
community”.
 In this position, the King of Spain serves as the
president of the Ibero-American States
Organization, representing over 700,000,000 people in
24 member countries around the world.
 Was in 2008 regarded the most admired leader in all
Ibero-America, even though he and the Crown of
Spain, according to recent polls, are not favourably
viewed by Spaniards.

11. Mariano Rajoy
 Born in Santiago de Compostela on 27
March 1955.
 Current PM of Spain; assumed office on
21 December 2011, following his election.
 Leader of the People’s Party since 11
March 2004.
 Served as Minister of Public
Administration from 1996-1999 and
Minister of Education from 1999-2000
under PM José María Aznar;
subsequently served as Deputy PM from
2000-2003.
 Led the People’s Party into the March
2004 general election, although the
opposition Spanish Socialist Workers’
Party (PSOE) won that election after the
2004 Madrid train bombings.
 Was Leader of the Opposition from 2004-
2011.

12. Soraya Sáenz de
Santamaría
 Born in Valladolid on10 June 1971.
 Current Deputy PM of Spain and
Minister of the Presidency; was
sworn into both offices on 22
December 2011.
 Was the executive secretary of the
People’s Party’s domestic
policy, and a representative for
Madrid, in the VIII legislature of
Spain (2004-2008).
 Was nominated by Mariano Rajoy
as spokesperson for the People’s
Group in the Congress of Deputies
in the IX legislature; replaced
Eduardo Zaplana.

13. People’s Party
 Conservative political party in Spain.
 Was founded in 1989 as a re-establishment of the
People’s Alliance (Spanish: Alianza Popular, AP), a
party founded and led by Manuel Fraga Iribarne, an ex-
Minister of the Interior and Minister of Tourism under
Francisco Franco’s fascist dictatorship; the new party
merged the conservative AP with several small
Christian democratic and liberal parties (the party refers
to this fusion of views Reformist centre).
 Manuel Fraga was given the honorary title of “Founding
Chairman” in 2002.
 Was the leading opposition party, with 153/350
delegates, in the Congress of Deputies until November
2011; it was also the biggest party represented in the
Senate, with 101/208 senators.
 Its youth organization is New Generations of the
People’s Party of Spain (NNGG).
 Won a majority in the November 2011 elections with
186 seats in the Deputies.
 Member of the right of centre European People’s Party
(EPP, European affiliation); its 23 MEPs sit in the EPP
Group in the EP.
 Also a member of the Centrist Democrat International
and the International Democrat Union (both
international affiliation).

14. Spanish Socialist Workers’
Party
 Social-democratic political party in Spain; its
political position is left of centre.
 Formerly Spain’s governing party, until its
defeat in the November 2011 elections and the
second oldest, only younger than the Partido
Carlista, founded in 1833.
 Has had close ties with the General Union of
Workers (UGT), a Spanish trade union, and
the membership of which was a necessity for
membership in the PSOE.
 However, in the 1980s, UGT criticized the
PSOE’s economic policies; called for a general
strike on 14 December 1988.
 Was recently defeated in the general elections
held on 20 November 2011.
 Full member of the Party of European
Socialists (European affiliation) and Socialist
International (International affiliation).
 The PSOE’s 21 MEPs sit in the Socialists and
Democrats European parliamentary group in
the EP.

15. Madrid

16. The End (El fin)