Moving beyond the lessons that the nationalist parties and the communist left (IU) should take home from their loss of votes to the PSOE, the only statement that is valid today is that the general elections in Spain have only one winner: José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. Even if the PP has increased its presence in parliament, today it constitutes more opposition than it did four years ago. Mariano Rajoy’s strategists have failed.

• The harmful convergence of politics in Spain
  por Luis Méndez Asensio
• The electoral contest intensifies in Spain
  por Sagrario Moran

Regarding the several approaching appointments with the ballot boxes (Spain, Italy, the United States, and municipalities in France), the author analyzes the democratic components common to the several campaigns. Using the American model and the current political involvement of its citizenry, he reminds the readers that a party system is far from being a summation of apparatuses; rather, the system responds to a dynamic in which each strong force talks to, competes with, and confronts the other.

• The Italian elections: "Obama versus McCain"… Roman style
  por José Catalán Deus
• The harmful convergence of politics in Spain
  por Luis Méndez Asensio
• Barack versus "Billary"
  por Eric Napoli

No one disputes Juan Carlos I’s role as facilitator of democracy during the Spanish transition. Regardless of the current crown-wearer’s behavior, the author believes it is necessary to open up a serious debate concerning the viability of the monarchy, and he directly points to the type of regime that we want in Spain.

In spite of sustained macroeconomic growth, which was close to 4 percent in 2007 but not duly reflected in the majority of the population’s pockets, Spain continues to suffer from important production, competition and exportation shortages, among other problems. Neither the Socialist Party nor the Popular Party’s programs addresses the economic transformations that Spain urgently needs.

• Why Spain’s future is at stake
  por Luis Méndez Asensio
• The electoral contest intensifies in Spain
  por Sagrario Moran

The electoral battle between president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (PSOE) and opposition leader Mariano Rajoy (Partido Popular) is intensifying. The foreseeable economic slowdown in 2008, the rise in prices, the growth of the foreign deficit, and the slump in the real-estate sector signal the end of a cycle and show competitiveness problems. The second big topic is the antiterrorist fight: despite not going through a good period (thanks to political and judicial action), it would not be unlikely for ETA to carry out terrorist acts before the elections.

There are two unresolved matters in the Spanish democracy outside of the current situation that no government has managed to resolve since the Transition: the political aspirations of certain autonomous regions and the relationship between the Catholic Church and the Spanish State. The first challenge is Spain’s territorial configuration, which continues to be questioned by a minority of the population that is by no means insignificant, capable of influencing, by means of its political representation (PNV and CiU), the Government; the second, the need to proclaim constitutional laicism in order to avoid religious interference in governmental affairs.