Page 29 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Spain

A POR TR AIT OF SP AIN  27

Sandy beach near the pretty town of Tossa de Mar, on Catalonia’s Costa Brava
reigned until 2014 when he abdicated in Spain enjoyed an economic boom in
favour of his son, Felipe VI. The post-Franco the 1980s, as service indus tries and
era, up until the mid-1990s, was dominated manufacturing expanded. How ever, at
by Prime Minister Felipe González of the the peak of the 2009 economic crisis, the
Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE). unemployment rate was a staggering
As well as presiding over major 27 per cent. Although this statistic
improvements in roads, educa tion dropped to 20 per cent in 2017, it
and health services, the Socialists remains among the highest of all
increased Spain’s inter national EU countries. In response to
standing. The country joined the Partido Popular govern-
the European Community in ment’s austerity policies
1986, trig gering a spectacular and allegations of corruption,
increase in national prosperity. King Felipe VI no party won an outright
Spain’s for tunes seemed to peak majority in the general elections
in the extraordinary year of 1992, when of 2015. Elections were held again in 2016,
Barcelona staged the Olympic Games and and this time the Partido Popular managed
Seville hosted a world fair, Expo ’92. The to win enough seats to form a minority
PSOE could not continue forever, how ever, government under Mariano Rajoy.
and in 1996 revelations of a series of
scandals lost the PSOE the election.
With the establishment of democracy,
the 17 autonomous regions of Spain have
acquired considerable powers. Several have
their own languages, which are given
equal importance to Spanish (strictly called
Castilian). A number of Basques favour
independence, and the Basque terrorist
group ETA was a constant thorn in the side
of Spanish democracy until 2011, when
they declared a cessation of hostilities. The
group officially disarmed in 2017, the same
year that Catalonia voted for independence
in a referendum deemed illegal by the
Constitutional Court of Spain and the
European Commission. This stand-off led to
protests in Barcelona and Madrid, followed
by the exile of Catalan cabinet ministers. Demonstration for Catalan independence

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