Influence of the 2008 economic crisis on the functioning of the political system of contemporary Spain

Abstract

"December 20, 2015 marks the end of an important stage in the history of contemporary Spain. That day, elections were held to the Cortes Generales, the result of which ultimately confirmed the final disintegration of the prevailing order of power on the central political scene. The winning of a powerful position in the Congress of Deputies by two new state-wide parties — the Ciudadanos and Podemos — not only signified a transformation of the system, in which two political parties had previously dominated, into a multi-party model, but also resulted in the inability to form a central government. On 3 May 2016, for the first time since the establishment of a democratic political system after the death of General Francisco Franco, the Spanish government was dissolved and new elections were to be held, not by order of the prime minister, but by a decree of the monarch.1 Furthermore, the political stalemate that had already been predicted by the polls, as well as the significant increase of the separatist aspirations of Catalonia, urged the main political actors to begin a public debate on the need to change the constitution." (fragm.)