RELIGION EMERGES AS CENTRAL ISSUE IN LEAD-UP TO SPANISH ELECTIONS

In Spain, religion has emerged as an important political issue to a greater extent than was expected, writes Carlos Garcia de Andoin, federal coordinator of the Christian Socialists (PSOE). In this article, the author writes that this is not only because the current legislature, which was seated in March 2004, was shaken by the jihadi bombings of the Madrid subway, but also because it found itself targeted by the active opposition of the most conservative sectors of the Catholic church. The origin of the tensions was not a policy of barring religion from public life but rather the changes in culture and values that are sweeping Spanish society. When the economy is in reasonably good shape, the manifestation of the political differences between the right and the left shifts to the arena of cultural values. Thus the government of the PSOE has represented the change in values while the Catholic Church has made itself the defender of traditional values.