Spain

Spain, officially the Kingdom of Spain, España Spanish pronunciation of the title in its original version Listen and Reino de España, is a southern European country and, as defined, of the West, which occupies most of the Iberian Peninsula. In 2009, there were 46 million inhabitants, making it the twenty-ninth country in the world in terms of population. One of the former European colonial powers, the country was a major world power in the fifteenth the sixteenth century, but began to lose influence thereafter, particularly throughout the nineteenth century with the loss of its colonies.

Spain is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the south and east, with the exception of the British territory of Gibraltar and the Strait of the same name which separates the continent of Africa. To the north, the Pyrenees form a natural border with France, Andorra, and the Bay of Biscay. Portugal and the Atlantic Ocean bordering the west and northwest. Spanish territory also includes the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean, the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean off the African coast, and two autonomous cities in North Africa, Ceuta and Melilla, that border Morocco. With an area of ​​504,030 km ², Spain is the largest in Western Europe and the European Union after France country.

Because of its location, the territory of Spain was subject to many external influences, often simultaneously, since prehistoric times until the birth of Spain as a country. Conversely, the country itself has been an important source of inspiration for other regions, chiefly during the modern era, when it became a colonial empire that has left a legacy of over 400 million Spanish speakers in date.

Indigenous peoples of the Iberian Peninsula are called Iberians. But Celtic populations, called Celtiberians, will then be aggregated. From the ninth century BC. BC, the Phoenicians, Greeks and Carthaginians settled counters on Mediterranean shores.

Since 1978, the political organization of Spain is governed by the constitution of that year establishing a constitutional monarchy and a social and democratic state of law and plurality of political parties.

The monarch has political and symbolic powers, as defined in Article 62 of the constitution: it is the head of state and army, ratifies laws, appoints the Prime Minister, may dissolve Parliament on a proposal by . Furthermore (art. 56), it is the representative of the Spanish state in international relations, especially vis-à-vis ties with the Hispanic world. The current ruler is Felipe VI. Executive power is still held by the President of the Government.

The President of the Government (Presidente del Gobierno) (comparable to the role of a Prime Minister) is the head of the executive for a period of four years renewable. The Prime Minister is appointed by the king after the acceptance of his candidature by the Congress of Deputies; he chairs the Council of Ministers. Mariano Rajoy is from December 20, 2011, President of the Government.

Legislative power is vested in Parliament (the Cortes Generales), which is the highest representative body of the Spanish people. It consists of a lower house, the Congress of Deputies (Congreso de los Diputados) and an upper house, the Senate (Senado). The Congress of Deputies has 350 members elected for four years by direct universal suffrage. Currently, the Senate is composed of 264 members of which 208 are directly elected and 56 appointed by the regions.

The judiciary consists of the Council of the Judiciary, administration and supervision of judges and magistrates and body of staff exercising a legal authority in Spain; the Supreme Court, which oversees the Spanish legal system and considers Last Call for crimes trial as well as for certain crimes or offenses of importance; Superior Courts of Justice, which make up the autonomous high courts also form part of the court order and are for the Spanish autonomous community of attachment, the equivalent of the Supreme Court, they remain subject to it and made ​​their judgments can be lodged appeals near the Supreme Court. A Spanish specificity lies in the existence of the National Court, a kind of "international" court ruling that foreigners for crimes of an international nature or particular themes that may involve either third States or several communities, but also topical areas such as terrorism, attacks on the welfare of the state and communities or representatives.