s: principal national parties, from
right to left--Popular Party (PP), Jose Maria Aznar; Popular Democratic
Party (PDP), Luis de Grandes; 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)

Suffrage: universal at age 18

Elections:
The Courts General--last held 29 October 1989 (next to be held
October 1993); results--PSOE 39.6%, PP 25.8%, CDS 9%, Communist-led
coalition (IU) 9%, CiU 5%, Basque Nationalist Party 1.2%, HB 1%,
Andalusian Party 1%, others 8.4%;
seats--(350 total, 18 vacant pending new elections caused by
voting irregularities) PSOE 176, PP 106, CiU 18, IU 17, CDS 14, PNV 5,
HB 4, others 10

Communists: PCE membership declined from a possible high of
160,000 in 1977 to roughly 60,000 in 1987; the party gained almost
1 million voters and 10 deputies in the 1989 election; voters came
mostly from the disgruntled socialist left; 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; 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, 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, UNES