In Spain, deeply divided parties find common ground in defense of the Constitution

As Spain observes the 41st anniversary of its Constitution, the surge of a far-right party that seeks to recentralize the country has effectively neutralized all political talk about constitutional reform.

The 1978 document that ratified Spain’s transition to democracy following the death of Francisco Franco is being honored inside Spanish Congress today.

But the plans for reform that had been mostly pushed by the Socialist Party (PSOE) have been relegated to the back burner, as Spain’s main parties seek to defend the country’s current structure, known as the estado de las autonomías and based on significant devolved powers to the regions.

With a scenario of political fragmentation, the country fresh off a repeat election that gave additional power to the ultranationalist Vox, Catalan independence parties pressing for the right to decide, and no new government in sight, both the PSOE and its traditional rival, the conservative Popular Party (PP), seem to agree that the time is not right to push for ambitious structural change.

Vox, which first entered the national parliament in April with 24 lawmakers and more than doubled this figure in November, has clearly stated its desire to change the basic structures of government, eliminating regional parliaments and police forces, and returning powers over healthcare, education and security to Madrid.

Meanwhile, the Catalan independence movement has repeatedly expressed its rejection of the Spanish Constitution, and even separatist parties that might support Sánchez’s latest bid to form a government, such as the Catalan Republican Left (ERC), defend the right to decide in an official referendum that would also require constitutional change.

For years, the PSOE had been the most active party in terms of suggesting changes to a text that has remained largely unchanged since its ratification in a referendum on December 6, 1978. The caretaker prime minister, Pedro Sánchez of the PSOE, earlier this year proposed a change to prevent the kind of stalemate seen in 2016, and again this year.

But after securing no more than 120 seats in the 350-strong house at the November 10 election, there is no way that Sánchez would assemble the necessary support to push this change through.

The notion of changing the Constitution has never met with much support in Spain. And now that Catalan separatists are rejecting the charter outright, while Vox wants to eliminate regional powers in response to the independence drive, leaders from the PSOE, PP, the center-right Ciudadanos (Citizens) and the anti-austerity Unidas Podemos are expected to take a clear stand today in favor of Spain’s own modern “Magna Carta.” This represents a change for Podemos, which once also defended a referendum for Catalonia that other parties reject as unconstitutional.

“In light of the current makeup of parliament, the main thing is to defend the Constitution, because it could sustain serious attacks,” said a PP source. And PSOE sources said that while they have well-defined ideas for constitutional change in the mid-term, “in the short run [we need to] defend it from radical and partisan actors who want to appropriate it and use it as a weapon.”

English version by Susana Urra.