Constitution of Spain

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Spain
Image:Escudo de España (mazonado).svg This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Spain

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Spain's first Constitution was passed in 1812. A complete list of the Spanish different constitutions follows.

Bayonne Statute of 1808, not recognized by the patriots during the Spanish War of Independence as it was the constitution of King Joseph Bonaparte and it did not actually work due to the war.
Spanish Constitution of 1812 (1812-1814, slightly applied due to the war; 1820-1823; 1836-1837)
Spanish Royal Statute of 1834 (1834-1836)
Spanish Constitution of 1837 (1837-1845)
Spanish Constitution of 1845 (1845-1869)
Spanish Constitution of 1856 (passed by the Parliament but not promulgated by the Queen as moderate liberals returned to power)
Spanish Constitution of 1869 (1869-1876)
Spanish Constitution of 1873 (Republican, mere draft)
Spanish Constitution of 1876 (1876-1931; during Primo de Rivera's dictatorship (1923-1930) many of its articles were suspended)
Spanish Constitution of 1931 (Republican, 1931-1939; during the Civil War (1936-1939) it was abolished by the Nationalists and widely disregarded in the Republican zone)
Spanish Constitution of 1978 (current)

During Franco's dictatorship, there were many attemps to create stable institutions that did not (at least directly) emanate from the dictator as they did in the post-war period. The Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom (Spanish Leyes Fundamentales del Reino) were a constitution in parts enacted through nearly 20 years starting in the 1950s. They established the very institutions that would later, under King Juan Carlos I and Prime Minister Adolfo Suárez, commit "constitutional suicide" and pass the Political Reform Act, starting the Spanish transition to democracy. Most of those Laws theoretically provided for a quite free state, much in the fashion the Soviet constitutions granted many freedoms, but ultimately the power of the Caudillo was supreme.

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(Spanish) Text of all Spanish Constitutions, except the 1808 one

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