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Last week's decision by the Cortes was the most significant victory yet in the campaign by King Juan Carlos and Premier Adolfo Suárez to move Spain out of the Franco era toward democratic rule. Juan Carlos and the government could have bypassed the conservative Cortes and taken the political reforms directly to the Spanish people by way of a referendum. Last week the government released a poll showing that Spaniards favored passage of the bill by a margin of more than 20 to 1. From the beginning, however, the Suárez government has moved cautiously...
While Suárez listened impassively on the blue leather government bench, Blas Piñar, head of an ultra-right group calling itself Fuerza Nueva (New Force) attacked the reform as a "stupid mask." Another right-wing coalition, the Popular Alliance, threatened that its more than 100 members would abstain from voting unless majority representation replaces the government's proposal that seats in the lower house be allotted by proportional representation. In the end, Alliance leaders and other conservatives were satisfied by a modest technical compromise on voting procedures...
Understandably unwilling to relinquish its powers and privileges, the men of "the Bunker"-diehard, archconservative Franquistas-have attacked Suárez's reform. They want the bill altered to grant more powers to the Council of the Realm, an appointive 17-man body that advises the King. The Franquistas also insist on an appointed upper house based on the Franco-style corporate system, rather than a popularly elected one. Because of the Bunker's opposition and the recent emergence of a center-right alliance of parties, Suárez may have to accept some modifications in order...
Opposition leftists are divided about the Premier's reforms. Some say that the measures Suárez has taken so far are too timid and want an immediate election of a constituent assembly. Others concede that the reform bill is a step toward the kind of free society demanded by the Democratic Coordination, an umbrella group that includes Communists, Socialists and left-wing Christian Democrats. But the organized left has boxed itself in with a public vow not to cooperate with any Spanish regime until the Communist Party is made legal -something that the rightists will probably be able...
General Strike. Suárez is embattled on the economic as well as on the political front. The leftist-dominated trade unions called for a day-long general strike on Nov. 12 to protest the government's austerity program. Spain has a 20% annual rate of inflation and more than 6% unemployment; it is also heading toward a $3 billion balance of payments deficit for the second straight year. To help out the economy, Suárez has frozen wages and prices and suspended a law preventing financially distressed companies from laying off workers. Leftists charge that the program...