Constitutional courts under pressure – New challenges to constitutional adjudication

Spain is a country with a considerably advanced normative and democratic Constitution, which was approved in 1978, following the end of the Franco dictatorship, having only been reformed on two occasions up to the present day. The first reform took place in 1992 to adapt the constitutional text to the Treaty on the European Union and was limited to incorporating the addition of ‘and passive’ to the right to suffrage that article 13.2 recognises for foreigners in municipal elections. ¹ The second revision had a greater reach and occurred in 2011, incorporating the principle of budgetary equilibrium into article 135 of the Constitution, ² being a precursor to others that would have to follow other European countries in application of the subsequent Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union, ³ to ‘calm’ the markets in the context of the financial crisis. ⁴