Spain’s parliamentary system features competitive multiparty elections and peaceful transfers of power between rival parties. The rule of law prevails, and civil liberties are generally respected. Although political corruption remains a concern, high-ranking politicians and other powerful figures have been successfully prosecuted. Restrictive legislation adopted or enforced in recent years poses a threat to otherwise robust freedoms of expression and assembly. The separatist movement in Catalonia represents a persistent challenge to the country’s constitutional system and territorial integrity.

• Elections for regional legislatures were held in February, April, and May in Galicia, the Basque Country, and Catalonia, respectively. In Galicia, the conservative People’s Party (PP) retained its absolute majority with 40 of 75 seats. In the Basque Country, the centrist Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) and the left-wing Basque party Euskal Herria Bildu each won 27 of 75 seats, followed by the regional branch of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) with 12; the incumbent coalition of the PNV and the Socialists ultimately formed a new government. In Catalonia, the PSOE won an absolute majority with 42 of 68 seats, eclipsing the Catalan separatist parties that had long governed the region.
• Parliamentary and judicial investigations continued to uncover evidence related to the former PP government’s alleged use of law enforcement resources to surveil and disseminate compromising information about Catalan separatist leaders as well as the left-wing Podemos party.
• In May, the parliament granted final approval to a controversial amnesty law—backed by the PSOE-led government—that would excuse Catalan separatists for offenses associated with their drive for independence, including the organization of illegal referendums. The law excluded some crimes, such as terrorism and torture. The Constitutional Court had yet to complete its review of the legislation at year’s end. In February, the parliament launched three investigative committees that the PSOE had agreed to establish in return for Catalan separatist parties’ support in government formation in 2023; the panels were set to investigate possible abuses by the judiciary, among other topics, raising further concerns among judges and lawyers’ groups about political pressure on the rule of law.
• In July, after reaching a political agreement on the matter, the parliament approved new members of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), which is responsible for appointing, transferring, and promoting judges. The council had been due for renewal since 2018, but political deadlock had forced the incumbent members to continue on an interim basis with limited powers, holding up key judicial appointments and creating scores of vacancies. A new president of the CGPJ and Supreme Court was chosen in September.

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For additional background information, see last year’s full report.