Andalucia is a large Autonomous Region of Spain and, as such, has politicians with a national viewpoint and those with a more regional viewpoint. Think of Wales and Scotland- the straightforward Labour and Conservative parties are represented but also the SNP (Scottish Nationalist Party) in Scotland and in Wales the Plaid Cymru has considerable influence. Let’s first examine the more nationally based parties!
In government today the PSOE rule. The PSOE (“Partido Socialista Obrero Española) came back into power in the last election in 2004 after gaining a majority over the, then, current PP government. The elections took place very shortly after the Madrid bombings and the public voted to try to ensure that a different Middle Eastern foreign policy was put in place. It is the largest party of government and is a member of the Socialist International.
The PSOE started out life back in 1879, founded by Pablo Iglesias, as a party representative of the working class. It was banned by Franco in 1939 with many leaders shot or imprisoned. Today the party’s policies bear a distinct similarity to those of our Social Democrat Party. The party is headed by Jose Luis Rodriquez Zaptero, who took over after Felipe Gonzalez who resigned in 1997 after a crisis in the PSOE following on from their defeat in the 1996 elections.
The party suffered a hard defeat in 2000 as well. However it has always remained the ruling party in the Autonomous community of Andalusia and achieved 43% of the votes in the 2004 elections. Manuel Chaves is the regional leader for PSOE in Andalucia.
The PSOE are a fairly traditionalist socialist party with strong links with the country’s biggest unions UGT and CCOO and has recently called and achieved a yes vote for the European Constitution and been one of the first governments to endorse same sex marriage.
The main opposition to the PSOE is the PP (Partido Popular). This is a centre right based party and was set up after the Franco regime from a merger of the old Allianza Popular, the liberals (PL) and the Democratic People’s Party (PDP) in 1989. Manuel Fraga was the founding president In April of 1990 Jose Maria Aznar became president of the party and after elections in 1996 was Prime Minister until 2004. Rajoy was their candidate in the 2004 elections. The PP is the largest minority party in the Congress of deputies and has 24 of Spain’s 54 MEPs.
Aznar and Gonzalez were very prone to spending time with celebrities and Aznar still regularly graces the pages of the gossip magazines with his wife, Ana Botella, and daughter -overtones of our own Tony Blair there! Gonzalez is a bit of a local man and he and his family can often be seen in Castellar de La Frontera in Cadiz province where they have a property.
Other national parties of importance are the IU (Izquierda Unida) and the Verdes (Greens) The IU is a coalition of parties around the communist party of Spain and includes the Esquerra Unida i Alternativa in Catalonia In some of the more rural parts Andalucia there is a strong party membership. The Greens are a member of the Partido Verde Europeo and are gaining in influence especially in those parts of Andalucia, which are being ruined by property speculation.
Finally in Andalucia the PA (Partido Andalucista) is the most important regional party. Set up in 1965-1966 the party was headed by Alejandro Rojas Marcos with the idea of the Andaluz identity, autonomy and social justice in mind. In 1996 it participated in the Andaluz Elections in coalition with the PSOE.
At the present, the PA is very important at a local municipal level often occupying the main opposition place. Most of the new team directing the PA have come up from these municipal routes. On a municipal basis many other small parties have grown up often in response to a particular problem in the area.
