POLITICS-SPAIN: Two Women Elected to Maximum Legislative Posts

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Alicia Fraerman

MADRID, Apr 5 2000 (IPS) - Two women, Esperanza Aguirre and Luisa Fernanda Rudi, assumed their posts Wednesday as the highest direct representatives of the Spanish people after being elected by broad margins as president of the Senate and of the Congress of Deputies, respectively.

For the first time in Spain’s history, two women are at the pinnacle of direct citizen representation.

Though Spain is a monarchy, with a King Juan Carlos I as head of state, the Constitution, approved by referendum in 1978, establishes that “the General Courts represent the Spanish people and are made up of the Congress of Deputies and the Senate.”

Both of the female legislative leaders belong to the centre-right Popular Party (PP), headed by current prime minister, José María Aznar. The PP, which won the March 12 general elections with an absolute majority, is a party made up of conservatives, Christian- democrats and liberals.

Aguirre was elected president of the Senate with 223 votes in favour, none against, and 24 blank ballots cast.

In her speech upon taking office, Aguirre spoke in the official language of the State – Spanish -, as well as in the co-official languages of three automous communities: Basque Country (Euskera), Catalunya (Catalan) and Galicia (Gallego).

The Senate president, who held the post during part of the previous term, had also served as minister of Education and Culture, and prior to that, as the Environmental counciller of the Madrid municipal government.

Aguirre calls herself a liberal. Though she did not swear to an ideology, she did promise to comply with the duties of her post. “I am a liberal without prefixes or suffixes, neither radical liberal or neo-liberal,” she told IPS.

Rudi, meanwhile, won her seat with 329 votes of the 349 ballots cast, with 15 blank and five against.

She defines herself as “a quiet feminist,” holds a degree in marketing law and, until this Wednesday, served as the mayor of Zaragoza (population 630,000), in the northeastern province of Aragón.

Upon assuming her post, she stressed that being the first woman elected to preside over the Congress, a body responsible for designating the president of the Council of Ministers, shows that “women have to cover a lot of ground before reaching the aspired- for equality.”

Her election, Rudi added, should represent “an important reference point for Spanish society.”

In this new phase, Congress must make an effort to connect with citizens in order to move towards “a plural, modern, advanced and integrated society, which is increasingly part of the European sphere, and looks to the future with hopes and dreams,” she said.

Women are the majority in the Congress of Deputies directorate, made up of five women and three men, and led by Rudi.

The women’s prominent posts came about due to a parliamentary pact between the PP and the opposition Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE), the United Left (IU, led by the Communist Party) and the regionalists from Catalunya and the Canary Islands.

Though these parliamentary elections represent a turning point, women are still a minority in the legislative posts. Women hold 26.4 percent of the seats in the Congress of Deputies, and 22.7 percent of the seats in the Senate.

Some of Spain’s major cities – Malaga, Cadiz, Gijon and Valencia – have women mayors, but most of the larger urban areas are run by men, including the capital, Madrid (pop. 3.1 million), Barcelona (1.7 million), Bilbao, Vitoria, La Coruña, San Sebastian and Sevilla.

And among the presidencies of the 17 autonomous communities that make up Spain, not one woman is to be found. The same situation is found in the Judicial branch, where there is a total lack of women on the Supreme Court. There is just one woman on the Constitutional Court.

Rudi, however, is confident that hers and Aguirre’s victories will help open the way to improving gender parity in Spain’s political power.