King Juan Carlos the First and the Spanish Constitution of 1978

Since 1969 Dictator Francisco Franco had groomed Carlos to become the heir to the throne following his regime. When Franco died in 1975 Juan Carlos became king of Spain. As the new ruler of Spain Carlos made democratic reforms and appointed Adolfo Suarez Gonzalez as the new prime minister. Suarez successfully orchestrated Spain’s transition to democracy by first making political reform legal. The Political Reform Law passed in 1976, established referendums of universal suffrage, bicameral legislature composed of a lower and upper house, and legalization of political parties, both democratic and Spanish Communist. Simultaneously, the former Francisco Franco’s National Movement was literally voted out of existence.

In 1977 Spain had its first democratic election since 1936. The Union of the Democratic Center, or UDC, was the newly formed Suarez coalition versus the Spanish Socialist Worker’s Party. UDC won the majority seats in the lower house, the Socialist Worker’s came in second, and a few seats went to the remaining extremist parties. Thus, the ruling parliamentary government consisted of all parties of whom Suarez consulted whenever he formulated national policies.

The creating of the 1978 Constitution had become a priority in which a constitutional monarchy in Spain with the king serving as head of state symbolizing national unity was established. Although the king symbolized national unity, the most crucial aspect of the constitution was the recognition of limited autonomy for Spain’s historical regions. The regionalist Catalonia, Basque and Galician provinces were granted home rule with an acknowledgment of them having their own distinct languages.

Spanish is Spain’s official state language. However, other major languages are spoken which are official in certain autonomous regions. Through Suarez, Catalonia, Basque and Galician provinces were the first to have their languages officially recognized as autonomous. Suarez later made provision for more than a dozen other regions across the country to be recognized as autonomous. Hence, Spain began to redefine itself as a nation of autonomous communities under King Juan Carlos 1 reign. Today, Spain consists of 17 autonomous communities and 2 autonomous cities, Ceuta and Melilla.

As an afterthought, the autonomous provinces still feel tied to Spain because restrictions placed on them. Consequently, Spain government continues to struggle with regionalists resentment and terrorist activities.  Regionalists continue to shout for greater and greater autonomy from the central government. Regardless of the internal dissident within the country, Spain remains a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary democracy since the approval of the Spanish Constitution of 1978.