Transition to democracy

After Franco’s death, Juan Carlos I was crowned as King of Spain, who worked to establish a parliamentary monarchy in Spain. Meanwhile, the opposition parties grouped together in 1976 in an association called Coordinación Democrática (so-called Platajunta since it merged both Plataforma and Junta Democrática), which demanded the dissolution of the Francoist Cortes and elections for new Constituent Cortes.

The first president was Carlos Arias Navarro, who began some opening-up but he did not break up with Francoist laws. There were some social conflicts (strikes, terrorism, Montejurra)

When Arias Navarro renounced, the new president was Adolfo Suárez, who was directly appointed by the King in July 1976. He declared the general amnesty of political prisoners. He drafted a plan to reform the Spanish politics, whose final act was the Ley para la Reforma Política, which was ratified in referendum on 15th December 1976 by 94% of the voters:

• It established a democratic system where national sovereignty was essential.
• Universal suffrage was established.
• The new Cortes should have two houses which should draft a Constitution.

All the political parties were legal, but the PCE (Partido Comunista de España), which was eventually legalised on Good Saturday of 1977. The most

conservative sectors opposed to this decision since they considered the PCE the worst enemy of the previous regime.  Some other decisions were taken in order to make a real democracy.

 But ther were some major problems:

• Violence: ETA terrorism and Francoist opposition, who massacred the Atocha labour lawyers on 24th January 1977.
• The Spanish economy was suffering a major crisis:
  • Unemployment grew rapidly.
  • The economic growth stopped.
  • Inflation was really high, since it reached 20-30%.

 After all Suárez’s reforms the first democratic elections were held on 15th June 1977, when his political party won (UCD: Unión de Centro Democrático). Hence, he became the first democratic president after 40 years.

During this government there were also social and economic agreements due to economic crisis caused by the oil price rise and the high unemployment. The result was the signing of the Pactos de La Moncloa (25th October 1977) They fixed the principles of the economic transition, such as wage moderation, employment flexibility, tax reforms, public spending controls or increase of unemployment benefits. They also acknowledged common rights and liberties in a democratic system.