Long-form name: Spanish State

Type: parliamentary monarchy

Capital: Madrid

Administrative divisions: 50 provinces (provincias, singular--provincia); Alava, Albacete, Alicante, Almeria, Avila, Badajoz, Baleares, Barcelona, Burgos, Caceres, Cadiz, Castellon, Ciudad Real, Cordoba, Cuenca, Gerona, Granada, Guadalajara, Guipuzcoa, Huelva, Huesca, Jaen, La Coruna, Las Palmas, Leon, Lerida, Logrono, Lugo, Madrid, Malaga, Murcia, Navarra, Orense, Oviedo, Palencia, Pontevedra, Salamanca, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Santander, Segovia, Sevilla, Soria, Tarragona, Teruel, Toledo, Valencia, Valladolid, Vizcaya, Zamora, Zaragoza

Independence: 1492 (expulsion of the Moors and unification)

Constitution: 6 December 1978, effective 29 December 1978

Legal system: civil law system, with regional applications; Constitution provides for rule of law, established jury system as well as independent constitutional court to rule on constitutionality of laws and serve as court of last resort in protecting liberties and rights granted in Constitution; does not accept compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

National holiday: National Day, 12 October

Branches: executive, with acts of the king subject to countersignature, prime minister and his ministers responsible to lower house; bicameral legislature--Cortes Generales, consisting of more powerful Congress of Deputies (350 members) and Senate (208 members), with possible addition of one to six members from each new autonomous region; independent judiciary

Leaders: JUAN CARLOS I, King (since November 1975); Felipe GONZALEZ Marquez, Prime Minister (since December 1982)

Suffrage: universal at age 18

Elections: parliamentary election held 22 June 1986 for four-year term

Political parties and leaders: principal national parties, from right to left--Popular Party (PP), Manuel Fraga Iribarne; Popular Democratic Party (PDP), Luis de Grandes; Liberal Party (PL), Jose Antonio Segurado; Social Democratic Center (CDS), Adolfo Suarez Gonzalez; Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE), Felipe Gonzalez Marquez; Spanish Communist Party (PCE), Julio Anguita; chief regional parties--Convergence and Unity (CiU), Jordi Pujol Saley, in Catalonia; Basque Nationalist Party (PNV), Xabier Arzallus; Basque Solidarity (EA), Carlos Garaicoetxea Urizza; Basque Popular Unity (HB), Jon Idigoras; Basque Left (EE), Juan Maria Bandries Molet; Andalusian Party (PA); Independent Canary Group (AIC); Aragon Regional Party (PAR); Valencian Union (UV)

Voting strength: (1986 parliamentary election in lower house--350 seats) PSOE 44%, 184 seats; AP, PDP, and PL in coalition 26%, 105 seats (dissolution of coalition and party defections in 1986--AP 68 seats, PDP 21 seats, PL 12 seats, independent 4 seats); CDS 9%, 19 seats; Communist-led coalition 5%, 17 seats; CiU 5%, 18 seats; Basque Nationalist Party 2%, 6 seats; Popular Unity 1%, 5 seats; Basque Left 0.5%, 2 seats; Independent Canary Group, 0%, 1 seat; Aragon Regional Party, 0%, 1 seat; Valencian Union 0%, 1 seat; other, 6%, no seats; after the 1986 election, defections from the PNV led to the creation of the Basque Solidarity Party (EA) making seat distribution for Basque parties--PNV 4 seats, HB 5 seats, EA 2 seats, EE 2 seats (August 1987)

Communists: PCE membership has declined from a possible high of 160,000 in 1977 to roughly 60,000 today; the party lost 64% of its voters and 20 deputies in the 1982 election; remaining strength is in labor, where it dominates the Workers Commissions trade union (one of the country's two major labor centrals), which claims a membership of about 1 million; experienced a modest recovery in 1986 national election, nearly doubling the share of the vote it received in 1982

Other political or pressure groups: on the extreme left, the Basque Fatherland and Liberty (ETA) and the First of October Antifascist Resistance Group (GRAPO) use terrorism to oppose the government, although the latter has been inactive recently; free labor unions (authorized in April 1977) include the Communist-dominated Workers Commissions (CCOO); the Socialist General Union of Workers (UGT), and the smaller independent Workers Syndical Union (USO); the Catholic Church; business and landowning interests; Opus Dei; university students

Member of: Andean Pact (observer), ASSIMER, CCC, Council of Europe, EC, ESA, ESO, FAO, GATT, IAEA, IBRD, ICAC, ICAO, ICES, ICO, IDA, IDB--Inter-American Development Bank, IEA, IFAD, IFC, IHO, ILO, ILZSG, IMF, IMO, INTELSAT, INTERPOL, IOOC, IPU, ITC, ITU, IWC--International Wheat Council, NATO, OAS (observer), OECD, UN, UNESCO, UPU, WEU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WSG, WTO

Diplomatic representation: Ambassador Julian SANTAMARIA; Chancery at 2700 15th Street NW, Washington DC 20009; telephone (202) 265-0190 or 0191; there are Spanish Consulates General in Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New Orleans, New York, San Francisco, and San Juan (Puerto Rico); US--Ambassador Reginald BARTHOLOMEW; Embassy at Serrano 75, Madrid 6 (mailing address is APO New York 09285); telephone �34� (1) 276-3400 or 3600; there is a US Consulate General in Barcelona and a Consulate in Bilbao

Flag: three horizontal bands of red (top), yellow (double width), and red with the national coat of arms on the hoist side of the yellow band; the coat of arms includes the royal seal framed by the Pillars of Hercules which are the two promontories (Gibraltar and Ceuta) on either side of the eastern end of the Strait of Gibraltar

NOTE: The information regarding Spain on this page is re-published from the 1989 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Spain Government 1989 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Spain Government 1989 should be addressed to the CIA.