The premiership of Felipe González (1982–1996) occurred during the second period of the reign of Juan Carlos I.
Felipe González governed for nearly 14 years because his party, the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), won four consecutive general elections (1982, 1986, 1989, and 1993) - the first three by absolute majority, a "feat" "in Spanish, and even European, parliamentary history". This period saw the consolidation of democracy (after the democratic transition of 1975–1982), the integration of Spain into the European Community in 1986 (European Union from 1992 onwards), and its transformation into a society comparable to that of its European neighbors.
Elections of 1982 The general elections of 28 October 1982 had the highest participation rate of democracy - 79.97% and more than 20 million voters - thus having a "relegitimizing effect", in the words of Santos Juliá, on democracy and the process of political transition.
With the slogan Por el cambio (English: For Change), the PSOE scored a resounding victory by getting more than 10 million votes, almost 5 million more than in 1979, meaning 48.11% of the voters and an absolute majority in the Congress of Deputies (202 deputies) and in the Senate. The second most voted party, People's Alliance (106 deputies), got half of the votes (5.5 million) and was 20% points behind - although its results improved considerably compared to 1979, going from 6% to 26% of the votes - becoming from then on in the new conservative alternative to the socialist power. The PCE (with 4 deputies) and UCD (with 12) were practically swept off the map, as well as the Democratic and Social Centre of Adolfo Suárez (which only got 2 deputies). In addition, the extreme right wing lost the only deputy it had, and the Spanish Solidarity party, promoted by the coup leader Antonio Tejero, didn't even get 30,000 votes.
With this result, described as an authentic "electoral earthquake", the party system underwent a radical change, since the imperfect two-party system (UCD/PSOE) of 1977 and 1979 had been replaced by a dominant party system (the PSOE). The new party system was consolidated in the municipal and autonomous community elections of May 1983, another important victory for the PSOE, as 12 of the 17 autonomous communities were governed by socialists - with an absolute majority in 7 of them - while continuing to hold the main cities' mayorships. Only the autonomous governments of Galicia, Cantabria, the Balearic Islands (of People's Alliance), Catalonia (of CiU) and the Basque Country (of PNV) were outside socialist control.
The elections of 1982 have been considered by most historians to be the end of the political transition process initiated in 1975. The first reason being the high turnout, the highest ever recorded up to that time (79.97%), which reaffirmed the citizens' commitment to the democratic system and demonstrated that the "return to the past" advocated by the "involutionist" sectors did not have the support of the people. Secondly, because for the first time, the political alternation typical of democracies took place, thanks to the free exercise of the vote by the citizens. Furthermore, because a party that had nothing to do with Franco's regime assumed the government - since it was one of the defeated parties in the Civil War.
The socialist project: Spain's "modernization"
The political program developed by the governments presided over by Felipe González was not a project of "socialist transformation" - the only nationalization carried out was that of the high voltage electricity network - but of "modernization" of Spanish society to put it on a par with the rest of the "advanced" democratic societies. Its historical reference was the moderate socialism of Indalecio Prieto.
The government plan presented by the PSOE during the 1982 election campaign was very ambitious. It proposed consolidating democracy and tackling the economic crisis - its flagship promise was the creation of 800,000 jobs - as well as adapting productive structures to a more efficient and competitive economy, helping small and medium-sized businesses and reconverting large public industrial companies, also achieving a fairer and more egalitarian society with the universalization of health care, education and pensions. As Santos Juliá pointed out, the PSOE undertook to "change everything without revolutionizing anything" within a "project for the regeneration of the State and society" which Felipe González summarized with the slogan "Que España funcione" (English: Let Spain work) thanks to a "gobierno que gobierna" (English: government that governs).
However, the economic and political situation that Calvo Sotelo's government bequeathed the country was very complicated. Economic stagnation continued, with unemployment exceeding 16%, inflation not dropping below 15% and a staggering budget deficit. ETA terrorism continued and the threat of a coup d'état had not disappeared, as demonstrated by the new coup attempt that Calvo Sotelo's government was able to stop and that was planned for the eve of the October 28th elections. On September 30, based on information obtained by the secret services, four chiefs and officers - who had planned for a large number of civilian and military commandos to take control of strategic points in Madrid and then declare a "state of war" - were arrested. The public was not informed of the facts, and in April 1984, two colonels and two lieutenant colonels were sentenced to 12 years in prison and expelled from the Army.
Consolidation of the democratic system
Military policy: end of the coup threat
The Socialist government realized that in order to consolidate the democratic regime in Spain it was necessary to put an end to its two main enemies: "putschism" and "terrorism". Concerning the former, several measures were implemented to "professionalize" the Army and subordinate it to civilian power, so that the idea of an "autonomous" military power became completely out of the question. Thus, as Santos Juliá pointed out:"The shadow of the military coup ceased to hover over Spanish politics for the first time since the beginning of the Transition."Narcís Serra, the Minister of Defense of the first Socialist government, submitted to Parliament a Law on the Army Staff, which provided for a progressive reduction of 20% in the number of generals, chiefs, officers and non-commissioned officers. Similar to the Azaña's military reform of the Second Republic, it sought to create a more professional and efficient army, ending the endemic problem of an excessive number of commanders - from 66,000 in 1982 to 57,600 in 1991. In 1984, Serra also presented the Organic Law of Defense and Military Organization, which placed the Board of Joint Chiefs of Staff under the direct authority of the minister and integrated the Navy, the Air Force and the Army into the same organization chart through the creation of the new figure of the chief of the Defence Staff. It also integrated military jurisdiction into civilian jurisdiction through the creation of a Special Chamber of the Supreme Court, and reduced the historical military regions from nine to six.
The socialist government still faced a last coup attempt in June 1985, that was thwarted by the intelligence services and was not made public until more than ten years later. The plan consisted of setting off an explosive charge under the presidential tribune of the Armed Forces Day parade - to be held on the first Sunday of June in La Coruña - and blaming ETA. Following this, putschism disappeared completely from Spanish political life.
Additionally, the length of compulsory military service was reduced from 15 to 12 months in 1984 and from 12 to 9 in 1991, plus conscientious objection was regulated, resulting in a massive influx of young people willing to perform the alternative civilian service - there were also draft dodgers who were convicted for refusing to perform either one or the other.
Education policy and extension of rights and freedoms The team of the Minister of Education of the first Socialist government José María Maravall drafted the Organic Law for the Right to Education (in Spanish, Ley Orgánica reguladora del Derecho a la Educación or LODE) that, among other things, recognized and regulated the subsidies received by private educational centers, mostly religious, that provided basic education, henceforth called "concerted" centers, and whose management would involve the teachers and parents of the students through the school board. Although it was opposed by conservative sectors - People's Alliance, with the support of the National Catholic Confederation of Family Parents and Student Parents (in Spanish, Confederación Católica Nacional de Padres de Familia y Padres de Alumnos or CONCAPA) and the Federation of Religious Educators, appealed the law before the constitutional court, which rejected the appeal - according to Santos Juliá:"The Law was received with relief by the Episcopal Commission for Education, who saw it as the necessary guarantee to keep getting substantial funds from the State - more than 100,000 million pesetas - that private education had been receiving without any legal regulation."Minister Maravall also implemented the University Reform Act (in Spanish, Ley de Reforma Universitaria or LRU) which granted broad economic and academic autonomy to universities and established a system to achieve faculty stability. The so-called Non-tenured Professors (PNNs) were granted the status of State employees through an "exceptional and controversial" competition of "suitability". The university reform went hand in hand with the creation of new universities and a significant increase in the number of scholarships, resulting in an increase of university students to over one million for the first time in 1990.
The Cortes also approved several laws that developed the rights and freedoms recognized in the Constitution, such as the Habeas Corpus, Freedom of assembly, Foreigners, and Trade Union Freedom. The most controversial was the Abortion law, approved in spring 1985, which allowed the voluntary termination of pregnancy in three cases: rape, malformation of the fetus, and serious physical or psychological risk to the mother. The Catholic Church campaigned in defense of the "right to life" and People's Alliance appealed to the Constitutional Court, but the Court ruled in favor of the law.
In July 1985, the election system of 20 members of the General Council of the Judiciary was modified and all of them were appointed by the Cortes - only 8 were appointed until then and the other 12 corresponded to the associations of judges and magistrates. The Organic Law of the Judiciary Power approved by the Socialists was appealed to the Constitutional Court, but the Court rejected the appeal. According to David Ruiz, this change in the election procedure of the council had "the purpose of neutralizing the conservative, if not reactionary, ideology of a significant proportion of judges and magistrates".
End of the "State of Autonomies" Besides approving the few statutes of autonomy that were still pending, there was a huge decentralization of public spending, transferring to the autonomous communities the powers determined by their respective statutes and which until then had been exercised by the central State. By 1988, the average expenditure of the autonomous communities had already reached 20% of total public spending, and since then it has continued to increase. Thus, in a short time, as Santos Juliá pointed out, "Spain went from being the most centralist state in Europe to one of the most decentralized".