VIII legislature of Spain

The viii legislature of Spain (xcvii from the Cortes of Cádiz) began on April 2, 2004 when, After the general elections were held, the Cortes Generales were constituted, and ended on January 15, 2008, with their dissolution. The 7th legislature preceded it and the 9th legislature succeeded it.

The Spanish Socialist Workers Party obtained a simple majority in the Congress of Deputies. José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero was sworn in as President of the Government and formed his first Government. The Government was characterized by the creation of a further increase in social services, creating the Dependency Law, among others, whose objectives would increase year by year with modification of the economic policy of the outgoing government, in addition to more rights such as homosexual marriage or a new regularization of emigrants, the beginning of a so-called peace process with ETA and the reform of the Statutes of Autonomy. In the international arena, troops were withdrawn from Iraq and the Alliance of Civilizations was promoted.

The Popular Party, for its part, remained isolated in the agreements on justice reform or in the conclusions of the 11-M Commission. A socialist was even elected president of the Senate, where the Popular Party had a simple majority. The Government also replaced all directly appointed public positions from the PP stage in all publicly owned media and institutions. Cándido Conde-Pumpido was appointed as State Attorney General.

During this legislature, various controversial events occurred that intensified the political debate and caused the breakdown of understanding between the two major parties, leaving the PP on many occasions isolated from the rest of the formations, for not complying with what was previously agreed on matters such as the ETA terrorism. The reforms of the statutes of autonomy, the distancing of the Government and the Church, the interest of foreign capital in Spanish companies and the confrontation between media groups for the manipulation of El Mundo on account of the investigation and trial of 11-M, were some of the central issues of the legislature.

Start of the legislature

General Election

The general elections were held on March 14, 2004, three days after the 11-M attacks in Madrid. The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) won the elections by obtaining a simple majority of 164 seats in the Congress of Deputies, 39 more deputies than in the previous elections. The Popular Party (PP) obtained 148 seats, 39 less than in the previous ones. The results of the elections turned around the polls that predicted a victory for the PP.

Regarding the minority parties, Convergència i Unió (CiU) obtained 10 seats, Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC) obtained 8 seats, the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) obtained 7 seats, Izquierda Unida (IU) obtained 5 seats, Canary Islands Coalition (CC) won 3 seats, Bloque Nacionalista Galego (BNG) won 2 seats, Chunta Aragonesista (CHA) won 1 seat, Eusko Alkartasuna won 1 seat and Nafarroa Bai (NaBai) won 1 seat.

Constitution of the Cortes Generales

The Cortes Generales were constituted on April 2, 2004 and the members of the Boards of the chambers were appointed. The socialist Manuel Marín was elected president of the Congress of Deputies thanks to the votes of the PSOE and the rest of the parties except the PP, which voted blank. The socialist Javier Rojo was elected president of the Senate.

Investment

On April 16 and 17, 2004, the investiture session of the candidate for Prime Minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, was held. In the investiture vote, Zapatero obtained 183 votes in favor, 149 against, and 19 abstentions. By obtaining an absolute majority in the first vote, the confidence of the Congress of Deputies was declared granted to the candidate. Six parliamentary forces gave their support to the socialist candidate, the highest number to date. This was also the only investiture vote in which only one party, in this case the PP, voted against the elected candidate.

Candidate	Date	Vote												Total
José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero	16 April 2004 Absolute majority required (176/350)	Yes.	164		5		8		3	2	1			183/350
		No.		148										148/350
		Abs.				10		7				1	1	19/350

Opening of the Legislature

On April 22, 2004, the Solemn Opening of the VIII Legislature took place. It was presided over by the King, accompanied by the Queen, the Prince of Asturias, his fiancee Letizia Ortiz, the Infanta Elena, the Duke of Lugo, the Infanta Cristina and the Duke of Palma de Mallorca.

Government

José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, president of the Government during the VIII legislature.

Education, culture and religion

Currently, Spain ranks 26th in educational development, below many of the EU countries, according to the "Education for all" prepared by UNESCO. On May 14, 2004, the improvement of scholarships for the 2004-2005 academic year in 66 million euros was approved. The Government also approves the new Organic Law on Education [LOE], whose project was contested in several demonstrations with massive participation. Also in terms of education, there has been an increase in social alarm about attacks or violent situations of harassment school in schools. In this regard, one of the most controversial episodes occurred as a result of the suicide by homophobic bullying of Jokin, a 4th year ESO student from IES Talaia de Fuenterrabía on September 21, 2004 ([1]).

Regarding religion, there has been a confrontation between the government and the ecclesiastical hierarchy throughout the legislature. As a precedent, different members of the Government had declared themselves in favor of the suppression of the subject of Religion (Catholic) or the equalization of other religions in public education. At the end of 2004, the Spanish Episcopal Conference showed its opposition to the government on issues such as marriages between people of the same sex and the educational reform of the subject of religion. In November the Episcopal Conference launches a campaign, with seven million pamphlets, against euthanasia, and announces that others will follow on other issues that it considers to be of public interest. The confrontation has continued on various fronts throughout the legislature, both economic (in which a new financing agreement was finally reached with the Church, to be applied since 2007) such as education, especially in relation to the subject of Education for Citizenship, or that of rights and freedoms (especially in regarding homosexual marriage).

From a socio-educational point of view, the Government has proposed a "recovery of historical memory", materialized initially in the return to Catalonia of the so-called "Salamanca papers" (documentation that remained in the General Archive of the Civil War) and the UGT union of the assets seized after the Civil War, or in the removal of the equestrian statues of Francisco Franco from public roads. Finally, and as the culmination of this project, the so-called Historical Memory Law (Law 52/2007) was approved, which includes a recognition of the illegitimacy of courts and juries during the Civil War, measures for the recovery of corpses buried in graves common during the war and the withdrawal of Francoist symbols. Some of these measures have been harshly criticized by the opposition, mainly by the Popular Party, since they consider the new law a return to "civil warfare" or a partial reading of the story.

In the field of sports, Madrid was not chosen as the venue for the 2012 Olympic Games for which it had presented itself as a candidate. The acting mayor of Madrid, Ana Botella, blamed the elimination on the government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, since after the elimination of New York in the second round, none of her votes went to Madrid (Madrid was eliminated in the third round by two votes). Said voters, affirms Botella, would be upset by the alleged "anti-American" of the Prime Minister (see the foreign policy section below). The mayor, Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón, disavowed this interpretation. Months later, however, an IOC representative who participated in the voting revealed that Madrid was eliminated due to a human error by one of those present.

The government also promised higher subsidies for artistic production. Sectors close to the Popular Party have criticized the fact that, among others, this benefits filmmakers, highly significant in the opposition to the Iraq war (No to war ) during the previous legislature.

Also in a cultural key, the Forum of Cultures Barcelona 2004 was inaugurated on May 8, closing on September 26 with quite discreet results in terms of visitors (2.6 million) compared to the exaggerated expectations of the mayor's office itself Barcelona (which at some point reached 7 million.

Media

In the first days after the general elections, Rodríguez Zapatero promised an independent management of Radio Televisión Española, and although he had promised that the general director would be appointed by the Congress of Deputies, on April 23 the Council of Ministers appointed Carmen Caffarel director of the public entity. Álex Grijelmo was elected president of the EFE Agency.

A "committee of wise men" to study the dramatic economic situation of the public entity RTVE, never solved by any government, and which concludes that its enormous debt must be assumed by the State. On June 24, it was announced that RTVE would become a publicly-owned public limited company, which, among other things, will have to have greater control over its expenses. Television content is also studied in order to protect children from inappropriate programs.

Presidents such as Alfredo Urdaci (the only known case in Spain of a journalist judicially convicted of information manipulation), Carlos Dávila, Fernando Sánchez Dragó, Jenaro Castro and Baltasar Magro were replaced. The comedian El Gran Wyoming returned, who had actively fought against the PP, and whose program was quickly canceled due to the low audience it had. Julia Otero also joined, who presents the program Las cherries. New debate programs (59 seconds) and sexual disclosure programs, Dos rombos, had more critical and public success. The audience rose above Antena 3 and Tele 5.^{[citation required]}

TVE devoted extensive coverage to the death of John Paul II, which generated criticism in Izquierda Unida for considering it inappropriate for a "non-denominational state". For its part, the PP demanded on June 15 the dismissal of Lorenzo Milá, presenter of the second edition of the Newscast of TVE 1, for his statements, not on the newscast, against the demonstrations that the PP supports. After the informative treatment of the Galician elections in the Weekly Report, the PP announced its intention not to send its political representatives to 59 seconds

The government suggested a moratorium for Digital Terrestrial Television and new concessions for analog broadcasting, which provoked the opposition of the PP and all the private media (Paolo Vasile, director of Mediaset España and friend of Berlusconi: & #34;This is a blow) except for the Hasty Group. Two new licenses were granted for open analog broadcasting: channel Cuatro and la Sexta. According to the PP, we would be moving away from ideological pluralism.^{[citation required]}

COPE is one of the audiovisual media critical of the governments of Spain and Catalonia. For their part, the government and ERC increased criticism and actions against the critical chain, arguing that hate would spread among Spaniards from that station. So much so that in Catalonia, after the creation of the Catalan Audiovisual Council, criticized not only by COPE but also by AERC, UTECA, Telecinco, PP, CGPJ, FAPE or APM, a file was opened against said channel. This attitude, mainly on the part of Minister José Montilla, as well as the readjustments in the allocation of radio frequencies in Catalonia, led Luis Herrero and other Spanish journalists to present to the European Union a manifesto signed by more than seven hundred thousand people so that the community institution would take letters in what they consider a political operation "destined to dispossess the second most important radio station in Spain of all its stations in Catalonia". Their extensive confrontation is dealt with in a more complete way in the article on the COPE chain.

Justice Reform

The General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) and other judicial government bodies, dominated by conservatives, appointed during the eight years of the PP government, had been trying to paralyze or stop some of the reforms that the new government was trying to implement. make. Due to the fact that in 2005 there were going to be new appointments of jurists and magistrates by the CGPJ, the government decided to act beforehand, proposing the Reform of the Organic Law of the Judiciary approved with the consensus of all the parties except the PP on 1 December 2004, which provided for the need for greater majorities to proceed with the appointment of judges and magistrates. According to the government, this new law tries to prevent one of the two sectors (conservative or progressive) from dominating the other even if it enjoys an absolute majority, so such a measure, according to them, should encourage consensus and agreements among its members. Until then, most of the appointments were made by absolute majority except those of the Constitutional Court that were ordered with a majority of three fifths. With the new law, not only the latter will be elected by the three-fifths, but also the Presidents of the Chamber and Magistrates of the Supreme Court, as well as the Presidents of the Superior Courts of Justice. The measure was harshly criticized by the PP, arguing that they intended to gain control of the Justice, to which the Government replied that they intended to put an end to the conservative dominance that, according to them, would have been promoted during the PP stage.

Reform of the Statutes of Autonomy

Although previously the so-called Ibarretxe Plan already started the debate on the territorial model of the State, it is with the beginning of the reform process of the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia in its Parliament when the debate intensifies. The Valencian Community was the first to present a reform of its autonomy statute to the Congress of Deputies. In the Balearic Islands, Andalusia and Galicia, the main political parties have started talks to also reform their respective statutes of autonomy.

Nevertheless, within the PP and the PSOE their internal discrepancies with the reforms of the statutes in which their parties participate are publicly displayed. Thus, for example, on the proposal to reform the statute of Autonomy of the Valencian Community.

On November 2, 2005, the Catalan Statute was admitted for processing in the Spanish Parliament after more than twelve hours of debate with the sole rejection of the Popular Party, which that same day presented the appeal of unconstitutionality in the Constitutional Court. The text, defended by the Catalan tripartite (PSC, ERC and ICV) and the Zapatero government, was submitted to the Constitutional Commission of Congress and was modified. It was finally approved with the votes of 54% of the congress and 48% of the senate, with the opposite vote of ERC in the congress and the abstention in the senate. The opposition to the statute by the PP is based on its opinion that it is detrimental to the interests of the Catalans and the rest of Spaniards, unsupportive, disruptive and unconstitutional. For ERC, the statute is insufficient, although initially they favored a null vote, ignoring their bases, they ask the Catalans to vote negative in the referendum. They affirm that the modifications introduced after the Mas-Zapatero pact have left the text totally "decaffeinated" and that an opportunity to achieve something much better for Catalonia is lost.

In January 2006, the Council of State, at the request of the government, prepared a report on the Statute approved by the Catalan Parliament. The conclusions were strictly contrary to it.

On April 25, 2006, the president of the Popular Party, Mariano Rajoy presented more than 4 million signatures in the Congress of Deputies for the government to submit to a referendum the question: "Do you consider it convenient for Spain to continue to be a single Nation in which all its citizens are equal in rights, obligations, as well as in access to public benefits?" by the definition of Nation of the Catalan Statute and considering that it establishes "distinctions between citizens".

On May 24, the Plenary Session of Congress approved the consideration of the project to reform the statute of Andalusia with 57% of the votes and the only opposition from the Popular Party.

On June 18, 2006, the Catalan Statute was definitively approved in a referendum with 73.9% of the votes, compared to 20.7% of negative votes, with a participation of 49.42%.

Timeline

Surveys and popularity

• In the elections, the PSOE obtained 42.64 per cent of the votes and 164 seats, compared to the PP that obtained 37.64 per cent of the votes and 148 seats.
• 22/27 April 2004: Survey of the Centre for Sociological Research (CIS). The results are published on 14 May. According to this survey, the advantage of PSOE rises to 10.4 points (45.8% vs 35.4%), and 52.5% of the Spaniards approves the management of Zapatero.
• In the elections to the European Parliament held on 13 June 2004, candidates José Borrell (PSOE) and Jaime Mayor Oreja (PP) participated, among others. The PSOE gets 43.30% of the suffrages, two more points than the PP (41.30%). Participation (45.94%) is the lowest in Spain's recent history. The CIS predicted a participation of thirty higher points (76.6%).
• According to the July 2004 CIS survey, PSOE would obtain 44% of the votes against 36.8% of PP. The other parties would get 5% (IU), 2.8% (CiU), 2.6% (ERC) and 1.5% (PNV).
• According to the October 2004 CIS survey, PSOE would obtain 42.1% of the votes against 36.1% of PP. The other parties would obtain 5.5% (IU), 3.3% (CiU) and 2% (ERC). It would also vote in favour of the European Constitution, with 44.6 per cent votes in favour, 4 per cent against, 13.6 abstentions and 5.2 per cent blank votes.
• The European Constitution was finally adopted in a referendum with 76.2 per cent of favorable votes, 17.25 per cent against votes and 6.03 per cent blank. Participation, with 42.33%, is even lower than that of the elections to the European Parliament, thus finding the low perception of the importance of Europe for the average Spanish.
• In October 2005, a poll for El País reduced to two points the advantage of the PSOE over the PP, while the one published in El Mundo pointed out that the people overcame the socialists in the intention of voting. Following these results, the PSOE launched on 9 December a campaign of 45 acts in 7 days (9, 10, 11, 15, 16, 17 and 18) to try to "replace the political and citizen's attention in the real management of the Government", according to ABC. The opposition also considered part of the same campaign the resurgence of the themes of the Prestige Disaster and the Spanish participation in the IU war in Iraq.
• In March 2006, a survey for the SER chain increased to five points the advantage of the PSOE over the PP. After the announcement of a permanent ceasefire by ETA, the advantage of the PSOE over the PP grew to nine points, in another poll made for the same radio chain. As at 23 March 2006, the PSOE would be in a position to obtain the absolute majority in general elections.
• In December 2006, PSOE and PP remain on a technical tie.
• On January 19, 2007, a new survey for the SER chain placed the advantage of the PSOE over the PP in six points. Two days later, a poll for the newspaper La Vanguardia extended the socialist advantage to 7.2 points.
• On 30 May 2007, the Barometer of the CIS for the month of April, according to which the PSOE increased its advantage over the PP from 1.2 to 3 points. Two days later, on 1 June 2007, the first poll was made public following the municipal elections of the previous Sunday: this is the Pulmeter of the Instituto Opina for the SER chain, held on May 30, 2007, and whose result recorded a six-point advantage for the PSOE, one more than before the municipal ones.