Conservatives sweep into power in Spain: will culture of death be rolled back?
Spain’s conservative People’s Party (PP) swept into power Sunday following years of anti-life and anti-family legislation, and in the midst of a mounting economic crisis that has left over twenty percent of the population without work.
The People’s Party won all but seven of Spain’s 50 provinces and achieved an absolute majority of 186 seats in the Congress of Deputies, ten more than was necessary. The former ruling Spanish Socialist Worker’s Party (PSOE) won a mere 110 seats, with the rest allocated to smaller, mostly regional and ethnic parties.
Mariano Rajoy, the leader of the People's Party.
The absolute majority enjoyed by the PP will allow it to establish rules and pass legislation without the consent of the other parties.
Under the leadership of Mariano Rajoy, the PP is expected to institute reforms to tackle Spain’s immense economic problems. However, the fate of the right to life and family issues remain in question. Although the PP functions as Spain’s “right wing” party, and normally abstains from advancing a socially liberal political agenda, it is far from certain if Rajoy will use his power to roll back the pro-abortion and homosexualist policies of the Socialists.
Under former Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and the PSOE, the nation’s abortion law was amended to permit abortion-on-demand during the first 14 weeks of pregnancy and to allow adolescent minors to obtain abortions without parental consent.
The PSOE also created the institution of homosexual “marriage,” passed laws easing divorce, and imposed a national “Education for Citizenship” program on the nation’s public and private schools that indoctrinated students with a socialist, anti-family worldview.
Although Rajoy has expressed his displeasure with the social agenda of the Spanish left, he has not made specific promises to abolish the PSOE’s reforms. In interviews with the Spanish press he has made it clear that he disagrees with the homosexual “marriage” legislation and regards the abortion law as an affront to the right to life. However, he has disappointed the nation’s pro-life movement with a lack of commitment to abolish such laws, speaking only of unspecified adjustments to the existing regime.
In response to the election results, Spain’s most influential pro-life and pro-family activist organization, Hazte Oir (Make Yourself Heard), said, “we celebrate the defeat of those who have desired to destroy our values and have left the country at the edge of the abyss with their incompetence and toxic management.” The group asked Rajoy to “undertake the policies necessary to restore confidence among the people in democratic institutions.”
A petition to Rajoy provided by the organization states: “I ask one thing of you: don’t disappoint me. Remember that I am continuing to encourage you to repeal the abortion law, to promote policies to support the family and marriage, to do away with Education for Citizenship…”
Cardinal Antonio María Rouco Varela, Archbishop of Madrid, observed that the economic crisis facing Spain is rooted in the moral decline of the country, specifically naming the mass killing of the unborn and disrespect for the family that has been facilitated by recent socialist legislation.
Rouco Valera pointed to “the loss of moral values, which goes along with relativism and the consignment into oblivion of God and His Holy Law, the consequences of which are greed, political and economic corruption, looking out for one’s own personal interests, at all costs, disregard for human life because of abortion and anti-life policies and behavior, the lack of protection and institutional decay when it comes to marriage and the family, and the exploitation and deterioration of education.”
Regarding the election of Rajoy and the PP, Rouco Valera spoke of a “new political era in Spain” and added, “we hope that those who have been elected to govern in such difficult times will have the wisdom, serenity, and spirit of service when it comes to their noble and crucia
