A Political Science Major's Paradise

Sorry I haven't updated my blog in a while, this week has been pretty low key due to the fact that there were no classes; the Universidad de Alicante gives its students a week to study. Also, since it was a fairly boring week, I couldn't really think of anything to write about until today. I know I've talked a lot, or at least a little, about my love of Spain and that's part of the reason why I chose Spanish as my major in college. But I also have another major, political science with a concentration in international relations and comparative politics.

Since being here in Spain quite a few things have happened politically. The former prime minister, Adolfo Suárez, who led the country through its transition from a dictatorship to a democracy after the death of long-time dictator Francisco Franco, died back in March. Nearly every television channel talked about the much-loved prime minister and I was able to learn a lot about Spain's recent history while they celebrated his life. As well as the difficulties he, and Spain, faced during the transition to democracy.

Adolfo Suárez

Then just about a week ago, on May 25th, Spain participated in the elections for the European Parliament, the legislative body of the European Union, along with the rest of the EU countries. The Partido Popular (a conservative party) won the elections in Spain and as well as in Europe, but in Spain they only won 16 seats of Spain's 54 because of smaller third parties gained more votes. The same can be said for all of Europe; third parties were the real winners in the European elections, or at least that is my opinion. In Spain liberal/socialist third parties did better, but in the UK and in France extreme conservative third parties did well. The Spanish news was calling theses elections a defeat of the bipartisan system, seeing as in the past, the two main parties, the Partido Popular (in English, and therefore in the European Parliament, called the People's Party) and the Socialist Party (in Spain it's known as the PSOE) had always been the two dominant parties with third parties only having a very limited amount of seats, but now third parties nearly have half of the seats in the overall European Parliament. It will be very interesting to see how having so many third parties plays out in the next five years (that's how long their terms are); some critics on the news were saying how this could spell the end of the EU especially since the extreme conservative parties from the UK and France are anti-EU; I highly doubt that, but you never know.

Charts showing the results of the European elections with Spain on the left and Europe on the right

And finally, today the King of Spain, Juan Carlos I declared that he is abdicating the throne. Like Suárez, he helped lead the country into a democracy after the death of Franco, the dictator. Juan Carlos has been King for nearly 40 years and is 76 years old. He has had some health problems in the past, so basically he just wants to slow down and be able to relax. He has traveled to numerous countries across the world acting as an ambassador of Spain since he is the Head of State. His son, the Prince of Asturias (the Spanish equivalent of England's Prince of Whales - the next in line to the throne) Felipe will take over for him, but only after the Spanish government has drafted new legislation, because I believe on the news they said that the current Spanish Constitution of 1978 does not have a clause for the abdication of a monarch. The King believes that his son Felipe has what it takes to be king, so that is another reason for his abdication.

The front page of El País's (the largest newspaper in Spain) website today.
It says "The King Abdicates" with a picture of the King (left) handing
his letter of abdication to the Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy.

I'm very glad that I was here for this big stories and to follow them along with the Spanish people, as well as the rest of Europe (all three of these incidents were big news all throughout Europe as well). Tomorrow I leave for Barcelona, my last trip that I will be taking. It's a little bittersweet; on one hand I'm sad that this will be the last I see of Spain for a while and on the other hand it kind of signifies the end of my experience here and I'm happy I'll be ending it on a high note in one of Spain's greatest cities. I only have a little under 2 weeks left here, I can't believe it! Time has just flown by and I feel like I've only been here for about 2 months not 5! But I am finally starting to get excited about returning home, surprisingly.

"The mind is like a parachute: it only works if it opens."

Cheese, bread and longaniza: super delicious and simple

Note: the first three photos were all taken from El País the last two are mine