| Princess Leonor's Future Role: Heir or Spare? |
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| Written by Ana Maria Ruhl | |
| Sunday, 08 October 2006 | |
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Page 2 of 2 Unfortunately, as with all political agendas, it will be a long and complicated process for the change to take place. Presidente del Gobierno (President of the Government) Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and his Partido Socialista Obrero Español (Spanish Socialist Labour Party) government desire "to eliminate this vestige of discrimination via a constitutional amendment and to make the reform a priority." Mariano Rajoy, the leader of the Partido Popular (leader of the opposition in the Cortes Generales), “considers 2008 too soon to reform the Spanish Constitution.” Mr. Rajoy has said that his party would “also support the plans to change the constitution to reflect equality in the line of succession to the throne between the sexes.” According to Deutsche Presse-Agentur writer, Sinikka Tarvainen: “The process of amending the constitution is very complicated. Changing the rules governing the right of succession would require nothing less than two-thirds approval by the lower house of parliament and senate, dissolution of parliament, new elections, two-thirds approval by the new parliament and senate, and, finally, a referendum." "The government fears that the referendum could become a popularity test for the monarchy. The government is hoping to dodge the problem by submitting several constitutional amendments to the referendum simultaneously, but that could lead to problems with the opposition conservatives, who are against some of the proposed amendments, such as a reform of the senate.” Part I (Fundamental Rights and Duties) Chapter 2 (Rights and freedoms) Section 14 states the following: "Spaniards are equal before the law and may not in any way be discriminated against on account of birth, race, sex, religion, opinion or any other personal or social condition or circumstance." Maybe one of Spain's best-selling newspapers, El Mundo, best summed up the succession problem. Comment on this article
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