POLITICAL ROUND UP

Election background On Sunday, the Spanish people exercised a right that people under 30 take for granted - they voted in the municipal elections that are held every four years. They also elected their regional governments, except in Andalucia, Catalonia and the Basque country. While many Spaniards may not be aware of it, they are now enjoying the longest period of universal suffrage that Spain has ever known. Elections in the past were either very limited - by social class or gender - although universal suffrage was the norm during the Second Republic, from 1931 to 1936. However, that brief period of political freedom and experimentation ended in a savage civil war which was won by the rebels, led by Gen Francisco Franco. He ruled from April 1939 to his death on November 20th, 1975, which heralded in one of the most remarkable political renaissances that any country has ever known - the so-called Transition, during which two men literally schemed to give democracy to Spain. The personal histories of these two - King Juan Carlos and Adolfo Suarez - made very unlikely freedom fighters. Juan Carlos's father, Juan, was the true heir to the Spanish throne, but Franco couldn't stand him, considering him "too liberal". The dictator and the king-in-exile finally agreed to let the latter's son to be educated by the former in Spain, where he arrived in 1949, aged 10. Franco finally made him his official heir in 1969, believing that Juan Carlos would carry on his regime. Few men can have been so universally misjudged as this nice enough chap, who did not appear to be particularly intelligent or imaginative. But the bland exterior belied a penetrating and receptive mind. During the dictator's last years, Juan Carlos went to great lengths to smuggle the men he wanted to talk to into his palace outside Madrid - some arrived in the boots of cars and one, Javier Solana - then a Socialist activist in the clandestine opposition who what he is today - arrived on the pillion of a banker's motorbike wearing a crash helmet that hid his features. By the time Franco died, Juan Carlos had a very clear idea of what he had to do to restore democracy although his hands were initially tied by the constitutional system he had inherited from the dictator. He could only choose his Prime Minister from a list of three candidates selected by the Council of the Realm, a seventeen-man advisory body consisting almost entirely of Franco diehards. Juan Carlos reluctantly confirmed Franco's Prime Minister, Carlos Arias Navarro, as the best of a bad lot. Arias without Franco was a bit of a disaster - not even his fellow Francoists supported him. On July 1st 1976, the king called Arias to the palace for a dressing down and Arias - who had never enjoyed being PM - resigned. The king then literally gobsmacked the political establishment by choosing the relatively unknown Adolfo Suarez, whose name had almost surreptitiously been included on one of the three lists the king was entitled to ask for by his former mentor, Torcuato Fernandez-Miranda. The country's leading historian, Ricardo de la Cierva, made a comment that he regretted for the rest of his life: What an immense mistake! Suarez, aged 43, had been the youngest member of the Franco administration - a negative - but he was from an inoffensive middle class background, very handsome and always immaculately dressed - all pluses. He also accepted that the political reform necessary to turn a dictatorship into a democracy could not be partial or gradual. With the king's connivance, within three months of being appointed Suarez presented a political reform bill to the Cortes (Parliament) to introduce universal suffrage and a two-chamber parliament. The Speaker of the Cortes, none other than Fernandez-Miranda, rushed the bill through its committee stages to avoid any chance of it being watered down. He also arranged for the vote on the bill - during which each deputy had to stand up and say Si or No - to be broadcast live on radio and television. The government was expected to win the debate on the bill but when it was finally put to the vote on November 18th 1976, television viewers could hardly believe their eyes. One by one the members of the Cortes - generals and admirals, ex-ministers, bankers and local bigwigs - stood up and endorsed a bill that would put an end to everything they had spent their lives supporting under Franco. They had correctly gauged the mood of the country and voted for reform by 425 to 59, with 13 abstentions. In a referendum held on December 15th, 94% voted for the bill and just under 3% voted against it. Franco and his regime were finally and truly dead. Adolfo Suarez resigned in January 1981, unable to hold the political centre together and more or less abandoned by his closest allies, including the king, who felt he was no longer able to deliver vital reforms, such as the divorce law. In a recent poll to rate Spain's prime ministers since the death of Franco, Suarez - who now suffers from Alzheimer's and can't even remember that he was once prime minister - was given the highest rating by 35% of those questioned. Just over 10% rated current Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, trailing fourth after Felipe Gonzalez and José María Aznar. Perhaps the Spaniards are not so easy to fool as Sr Zapatero seems to think.