Talk Elections

I've found (a long time ago, but still) data on deputies elected and, more recently, of votes cast in Spanish elections at a provincial or regional level since the 1860s. Of course, the Interior Ministry also has results by municipality of all national-level elections in Spain since 1979, and I've already done a few maps of the 2008 election by municipality. I'm not sure how much interest there is on here for some Spanish stuff, but I'll give it a go.

For now, if there's any interest, I'll post a brief guide to the parties during the Bourbon Restauration and then perhaps post stuff and hopefully maps of the "elections" in that era.

The Republican trifecta would be a good place to start, I think.

Oh, we're all interested, don't worry about that :)

all in due time, all in due time.

In the meantime, as I originally set out to do; the Bourbon Restauration

This was the Canovite system, devised by the Conservative Antonio Cánovas del Castillo. This illiberal sham was designed to produce stability and compromise by creating an artificial party system and by creating an artificial political cycle. Canovas, with his friend/Liberal leader Sagasta signed the Pacto de El Pardo which created the  turno pacífico whereby both dynastic parties monopolized power but alternated in power. One would rule for a while, then when the monarch felt that it had gone on for too long, the other party got power, fabricated elections and held power. And on it went. The golden era was between 1876 and 1898, and all hell really broke lose starting in 1917. Elections were fabricated to produce a huge majority to the chosen party, and they were helped in doing so by the caciques on the ground.

Liberals and Conservatives were artificial parties, with no real ideology and both pawns of the ruling agrarian interests.

Conservatives: Known as the Liberal Conservative Party, they were a bickering coalition of various strongmen which got increasingly factionalized after Cánovas died, assassinated in 1897. After Canovas, its most prominent leader was Antonio Maura who led the Conservatives between 1903 and 1913. A reformist within the system, Maura in government between 1907 and 1909 attempted to quash caciquismo and expand the political system to the middle-classes and the like. Opposed by the traditionalists within the party, he was dumped from office following the Tragic Week in 1909 (not exactly that, but close to it, for short). Aside from fabricated elections, it was "naturally" strong in Asturias and Euskadi (perhaps not in Euskadi, where pre-1910s a group of dynastic regionalist-type candidates affiliated with conservatism dominated). After Maura, their main leader was Eduardo Dato, a company lawyer whose most famous stint in power was in 1917, when he destroyed the August 1917 strike which short-circuited the Assembly movement but he was thrown from office when he was to destroy the officers' league (Juntas) in November of that year.

Liberals: Creation of Práxedes Mateo Sagasta, who led the party between 1880 and 1903. It was founded in 1880, and in 1884 absorbed the Dynastic Left. Following Sagasta's death, the party became a fake coalition of feuding barons. The two most important were Moret, keener to military interests (during the Cut-Cut crisis of 1905, he became PM and passed the Law of Jurisdictions to strengthen/placate the army); and Eugenio Montero Ríos, a former republican who was dismissed by Alfonso during the Cut-Cut crisis. A third man, José Canalejas, took the leadership and was of some reformist mind but was killed in 1912. Then another factional crisis emerged between, largely, the Count of Romanones and Manuel García Prieto (Marquis of Alhucemas). Romanones was the most reformist of the two, and was also a staunch Francophile (largely because of mining business interests) and tried to get Spain into the War in 1917 (and got dismissed for it). García Prieto, son-in-law of Montero Rios, was the most right-wing and apparently a boring person/traditional cacique. He founded a split-off of the party named the Liberal Democratic Party. Other factions, the Liberals being more factionalized than the Conservatives, included: the Izquierda Liberal faction led by Santiago Alba, the ambitious finance minister in 1916 who wanted to tax war profits (except those in agriculture) and as such led to him being destroyed by regionalists and his Liberal rivals. Alba represented the grain lobby based in Valladolid. The gassetistas, an agrarian wing, and the nicetistas behind Niceto Alcalá-Zamora (who later became President of the Republic).

Mauristas: Right-wing Conservative splitoff led by Antonio Maura, aforementioned, when in 1913 when the Liberals were forced out of office and Maura refused to follow the turno order, his fellow Conservatives (or not, the datistas) happily followed the turno order. Maura was the only dynastic politician to mobilize true support, a base of young monarchists who organized one of the only pro-dynastic popular movements. It had a moderate wing led by Angel Ossorio and a more radical wing. Maura hated the turno, but was still pro-dynastic and didn't cooperate with the Assembly movement in 1917. The movement had little else than devotion to Maura.

Ciervistas: Far-right Conservative splitoff led by Juan de la Cierva (one of the most distasteful men of the era), a former cabinet minister supported by the military Juntas, groups of peninsular officers who attacked the favouritism of the African troops and supported promotion by seniority. He served as War Minister in the Alhucemas cabinet which succeeded Dato in November 1917, a time during which he acted as a dictator and passed laws on his own bypassing the government/Parliament (he was supported by Alfonso XIII, who was always an asshole with politicians. He also had a small brain, but that's another matter).

opposition:
 
Carlists: The Carlist opposition was largely grouped in the Comunión Tradicionalista (the name stuck during the Republic as well) and won few seats in elections overall. They were the dominant party in Navarra and enjoyed some success in Guipuzkoa and parts of Catalonia. I don't think I need to describe Carlism, but it was a grassroots, clerical, ultra-conservative reactionary ideology which supported the Medieval order of smallholdings/communal land and Church-owned land, local regionalisms (fueros), state Catholic Church and so forth (it also supported the Inquisition). Some present it as an original anti-capitalist movement by small farmers in isolated areas (Euskadi, Navarra, Catalonia) against the 'liberalism' of the elite.

In the next post: the Lliga, the PNV, Lerroux's Radicals, PSOE, republicans and anything else I've forgotten.

OK, I'm really interested =)

Viva el PSOE !!!

Hahaha thank you hashemite...It's funny because I'm studying this at school  now...!! In fact I've got the exam right after Christmas... Anyway, I haven't started preparing it yet. So maybe this can help me, please keep on with it!

BTW, it was time for someone to open a thread on this.... Spanish politics are quite interesting! :)

Cacique, of course, was a Taíno loan-word.

I find it interesting that they were caciques more than jefes or patrones.

Something I am really interested in is the Catalan party system. I really like your descriptions - they were very informative. :)
Will you also post something about the Falange and Acción Naciónal? :)
Besides, the current Spanish electoral system is quite interesting.

...with the leading members of the opposition getting seats conceded to them by the government anyways.

A lot like the French local election law... except of course that in that, the identity winner is not predetermined, only the whopping-but-not-100% seat majority of whoever wins is.

Yes, I'll begin to study it in february, I guess... but I've studied this before... The history of the PSOE and PNV are really interesting;)

I'll continue:

Addendum to the Mauristas: in March 1918, Maura formed a "cabinet of titans" with an ambitious plan for reform, it included big names such as Maura, Alba, Romanones, Alhucemas, Cambó, Dato. Its foreign policy was a nice sham (and wasn't helped by Alfonso the Idiot's pro-German attitude) and domestically it fell victim to traditional feuds and the bourgeoisie lost any interest in reformism with the Bolshevik Revolution. Maura formed another government later in 1921.

Lliga Regionalista: Catalan regionalist party founded in 1901, of right-wing leanings, led and dominated by the Catalan industrial bourgeoisie. Its major leader was Francesc Cambó. The Lliga's sole interest was to transform the system to give itself (the industrialist elite of Catalonia) the power over the old agrarian centralist elite. Decentralization was its mean to do so, but the Lliga was not separatist. It was purely opportunist, and thus entertained alliances of convenience with republicans, socialists, urban labour or the dynastic parties. In 1907 it participated in a broad electoral coalition going from Carlists to republicans called Solidaridad Catalana which won 40/44 seats in Catalonia in the 1907 election - but collapsed later on when the Lliga backed Maura's reforms. In 1916, it led the charge against Alba's proposed tax on war profits in the industry. In 1917, it united with the Junteros, republicans and socialists to form an Assembly which called for decentralization and political reform. As a good proof of its opportunism, it happily broke with the socialists and entered government in the November 1917 Alhucemas coalition cabinet. It enthusiastically welcomed the 1923 coup, and its pro-Primo attitude significantly weakened it (as did Cambó's age later on).

PSOE: Socialist party founded in 1879 and followed by the establishment in 1888 of the UGT (the main Socialist union). Led/founded by Pablo Iglesias. Similarly to the SFIO (in fact, the PSOE's analysis was that of the French socialists), it used hardcore revolutionary Marxist rhetoric on the inevitability of the triumph of the revolution but in practice was very legalistic and reformist. Progress was very slow, and the PSOE only gained seats in the Cortes in 1910 and peaked at 7 in 1923. The Socialist brand of working-class politics in Spain was limited to the labour aristocracy of Madrid, Asturian mines and the iron works/shipworks of Euskadi (particularly Bizkaia) as well as the railway union. Anarchism dominated in Andalusia, Aragon and Catalonia. The socialists cooperated on-and-off with republicans, at times with the Lliga and later with Primo de Rivera's regime. Pushed into the August 1917 strike, the failure of that made the PSOE opposed to any kind of revolutionary action. Later, post-1923, the Besteiro/Largo Caballero (the UGT/trade union wing leader) favourable to participation in the Primo regime (through the arbitration committees, comites paritarios) won out over the Prieto political wing.

Radicals: Party founded in 1908 as a anti-Solidaridad Catalana splitoff of the Salmerón Republicans, and led by Alejandro Lerroux. Lerroux, who arrived in Barcelona in 1901, enjoyed success in Barcelona with a base of working-class support. Lerroux used violent anticlerical, populist and centralist (against the Lliga) rhetoric to build his base of support. In reality, Lerroux was not only a demagogue and a crook, he was likely a dynastic plant funded by the Liberals to divert working-class activity in Barcelona from the CNT. Of course, he later became a slimy right-winger working with CEDA.

Republicans: I don't know much about the activity of other republicans in this era. During the early Restoration, they were very weak and very much divided. In the 1880s you had the Possibilist Democratic Party which was very moderate and basically wanted reforms such as the universal suffrage (which came in 1890). More radical, the Progressive Republicans supported various military intrigues and failed coups. Federalist republicans were strong in Catalonia. In 1903, led by Salmerón and Lerroux, a Republican Union was founded which united all parties except the federalists. It oscillated between federalism and centralism, and Salmerón's decision to integrate the UR into the Solidaridad Catalana in 1907 led to Lerroux, a centralist, walking out. Later, the movement split between the more lerrouxista Conjunción (uniting Republicans and PSOE) and the federalist UFNR. In 1912, Melquíades Álvarez founded the Reformist Party which adopted an accidentalist line and supported working with the monarchy to achieve reform. Republicans were strong in Madrid, Valencia and especially Catalonia.

Basque Nationalist Party (PNV/CNV): The only party from the era, along with the PSOE, which exists today. Basque nationalism was a reactionary response to the industrialization of Euskadi which brought in non-Basque workers and socialism (the maketos, later the Koreans, were terms used by nationalists to deride them). The PNV was founded in 1895 by Sabino Arana, a semi-insane/mad racist xenophobe of Carlist ancestry. The PNV's early ideology was a mix of Carlism and reactionary anti-socialist conservatism but also non-Carlist stuff like separatism, racism, xenophobia and other crazy things. Arana was thrown in jail in 1902, likely out of his own will, and experienced a change of heart where he declared himself in favour of autonomy rather than independence. He died in 1903, so he never explained whether it was a real genuine change of ideology or a slick tactic to trick Madrid into thinking he had moderated when in fact he hadn't. After his death, until 1907, a hardline nationalist faction (forgetting Arana's late espanolista turn) dominated by Arana's brother Luis dominated. In 1908, a moderate autonomist faction led by Ramon de la Sota (an important and influential shipbuilder/shipowner) won out and toned down the party's rhetoric and its racist/xenophobic membership rules. In 1910, the party became the Comunión Nacionalista Vasca (CNV). In 1921, a radical hardline split retook the name PNV but merged with the CNV into a new PNV in 1930. The CNV/PNV supported the creation of Catholic anti-socialist unions, the SOV in Euskadi and sinidcatos libre in the rest of Spain. The CNV/PNV, unusual for political parties, also organized cultural activities, festivals with dancing and other weird stuff which the PNV today still kind of does. The CNV entered the Cortes in 1918, peaking at 7 seats then and declining in the next 3 elections. As today, the CNV's main base was in Bizkaia and Bilbao.

So, I think that's it. I might post maps of dynastic elections soon.

A very good post, specially the part concerning the PNV, a party which I feel very close to, obviously because I'm from the Basque Country :) It's something weird, because even if you don't vote for it, it's kind of the Party, not just one of many. At least that's how I feel about it and I know that many other people do as well. Also I have to mention the fact that it has suffered big changes since its creation and has adapted to each time in a very good way, from being a reactionary party to the centrist party it is nowadays.

Epic bump.

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A brief history:

1876: 5 Radicals, 1 Democrat. Radicals were moderates led by Cristino Martos, a former justice minister and old time politician. The Radicals by 1876 were the remnants of the old Democratic-Radical Party, the left-wing party under Amadeo I's rule led by Martos and Manuel Ruiz Zorilla. Democrats were founded by Emilio Castelar, a republican president and centralist.

1879: 8 PPD, 6 Democrats. The PPD were the renamed Martista Radicals, the Democrats were still led by Castelar. The PPD and Democrats oftentimes ran in coalition with the still unorganized Liberals, known as constitutionalists and led by Sagasta. PPD also got a seat in Cuba which isn't counted with the rest.

1881: 12 PPD, 10 Democrats. The PPD, Democrats alongside 10 independent monarchist progressives (not counted here) formed a coalition. A lot of PPD members went on to slowly become Liberals from this point forward, Martos included. The remaining PPD rump became the PPRD.

1884: 3 PDP, 2 indie PPRD. The PDP was the new name adopted by Castelar's Democrats now known as the 'posibilist' democrats. The PDP accepted the restoration as said and done, and worked for reforms such as the universal suffrage (adopted in 1890) within the system and slowly merged with the Liberals in the 1890s. Up until this point, the 'republicans' were legalist reformists. The "radicals" such as Ruiz Zorilla (who supported various coup attempts) and Nicolás Salmerón returned in 1885 to form the Progressive Republican Party (PRP)

1886: 12 PRP, 10 PDP, 1 PRDF (elected by accumulation). The PRDF was the recreated old federalist republicans, the largely Catalan federalist party led by former president Pi i Margall, a prominent federalist thinker. Salmerón quit Ruiz Zorilla's PRP to found the Centralist Republicans (PRC).

1891: 11 PRP, 7 PDP, 4 PRDF, 3 PRC and 1 independent republican.

1893: 32 UR (coalition of 14 PRP, 9 PRDF, 4 PRC and 5 indies) + 15 PDP. Salmerón had gotten all but the PDP together in the first of the republican coalitions. The PDP dissolved, under Castelar's recommendation, shortly afterwards, with the bulk merging with the Liberals and the rest joining the PRP/UR. Ruiz Zorilla's death in 1895 threw the PRP into chaos and division, leading to the party descending into obscurity.

1896: 4 independent possibilists. The UR except for the PRDF boycotted elections.

1898: 18 FR (coalition of 9 republicans, 6 ex-possibilists, 2 PRC and 1 Blasquista). A new coalition. Apperance of the Valencian Blasquista movement led by the writer Blasco Ibáñez. Blasquistas were populist, radical and demagogic similar to Lerroux's style. Anti-Catalan and anti-anarchist.

1899: 11 FR, 3 indies, 2 PRDF, 1 Blasquista.

1901: 14 CR (coalition of 12 ex-FR, 2 PRDF), 2 Blasquista, 1 indie. Another coalition uniting Salmerón with Pi i Margall's PRDF. Lerroux elected in Barcelona, and Pi i Margall's death the same year led to the PRDF's demise. Salmerón and Lerroux later united all main factions into the PUR.

1903: 30 PUR and 7 PRDF. Magnificient republican showings in Madrid (6/13 seats), Valencia (4/15 seats) and Barcelona (9/20 seats including 5 PUR and 4 PRDF).

1905: 27 PUR and 4 PRDF. The 1905-1906 Cut-Cut crisis, and the law of jurisdictions split the party as Salmerón became increasingly Catalanist and formed Solidaritat Catala in 1906 with the right-wing Lliga and Carlists. Lerroux, a centralist, proceeded to form the Radical Republican Party (PRR) in 1908. Blasquistas also formed a new anti-Solidaritat party, PURA.

1907: 22 PUR, 6 PRDF, 3 CNR, 2 PURA, 1 anti-SolCat indie, 1 indie. PUR, PRDF and CNR formed part of the Solidaritat coalition in Catalonia. SolCat won 40/44 seats, the republicans took 18 of those. The CNR (Centre Nacionalista Republicà) was a regionalist left-wing outfit founded by left-wing Lliga dissidents. The PUR, CNR and PRDF went on to form in 1910 the UFNR.

1910: 27 Conjunción Republicano-Socialista (16 republicans, 8 PRR, 2 PRDF, 1 PSOE), 11 UFNR, 2 PURA, 1 indie. Lerroux and the PSOE form the Conjunction, which does well in Madrid (6/13 seats) and Barcelona (5/20 seats). UFNR wins all 11 seats in Catalonia. PSOE elects first member in Madrid. The UFNR joined the CRS in 1911, but Lerroux's character caused significant divisions within the UFNR. The PRR also left the CRS, ironically. The most moderate republicans led by Melquíades Alvarez formed the Reformist Party in 1911.

1914: 11 CR (coalition of 6 UFNR and 5 PRR), 10 CRS (coalition of 9 Republicans and 1 PSOE), 11 Reformists, 1 PURA, 1 PRDF, 1 indie. The UFNR and PRR signed in March 1914 the Pacto de Sant Gervasi. The PRR and UFNR had suffered bad results recently, so the UFNR led by the liberal Pere Coromines signed a pact with the PRR. The major strategic goal of the PRR-UFNR was to stop the Lliga's electoral gains. The left-wing nationalist faction of the UFNR led by Francesc Layret walked out and formed, in 1915, the BRA (Bloc Republicà Autonomista). The CR won only 7 out of 44 seats in Catalonia (all but one were UFNR). The Reformists, who won 4 seats in Melquíades Alvarez' native Asturias, wanted to liberalize the Liberals and were broadly idealistically anti-corruption, anticlerical, reformist and oscillated between republicanism and 21st century European constitutional monarchism.

1916: 13 CRS (9 Republicans, 2 PRDF, 1 PURA, 1 PSOE), 12 Reformists, 6 CR (5 PRR, 1 UFNR), 1 PURA, 1 BRA, 1 Catalan nationalist republican indie. The Reformists took 5/14 seats in Asturias, only one less than the Conservatives. The UFNR was wiped out (one seat in Lleida).

1918: 35 AI (10 Republicans and allies, 9 Reformists, 6 PSOE, 4 Partit Republicà Català, 2 PRR, 1 PURA, 1 PRDF, 2 Catalan nationalist republican indies), 1 Macià. Another major republican-left success. The PSOE won 6 seats: Asturias, Bizkaia, Barcelona, Valencia, 2 in Madrid. The Partit Republicà Català (PRC) was founded in 1917 by the merger of the BRA led by Francesc Layret and Marcelino Domingo with a small grouping as well as ex-members of the UFNR, reformists like Lluís Companys and old PRDFs. The PRC won one seat in each of the four Catalan provinces.

1919: 15 CRS (6 PSOE, 6 Republicans, 2 indies, 1 PURA), 6 Reformists, 5 PRC, 4 PRR, 1 PRDF. The PSOE won 2 seats in Asturias and Madrid, 1 each in Granada and Bizkaia. The PRC won 2 seats in Barcelona, 1 each in the other 3 provinces. Reformists won 3 seats in Asturias.

1920: 9 Reformists, 8 PRR+allies, 4 PSOE, 2 Catalan nats, 2 PRC, 2 PURA, 2 indies, 1 PRDF, 1 PRD. Alliances broke apart. PSOE loses 1 seat each in Asturias and Granada. Reformists win 4 seats in Asturias.

1923: 7 PSOE, 7 PRR+allies, 3 PRC, 2 PRDF, 2 Catalan nats, 1 PURA. The Reformists ran alongside the victorious Liberals and won 19 seats (7/14 in Asturias) and Melquíades Álvarez became President of Congress as part of the last-ditched attempt at saving sh**t by the ultimate government of the era led by Liberal García Prieto. The Reformist-Liberal coalition broke apart as soon as they got together. PSOE gained all extra seats in Madrid where they won the most seats (5/13).

Fantastic thread ! :D

where did you find this??

It's great! Thanks

I make all maps myself, and if I don't I indicate that I didn't.

Something way more recent: 2011 municipal elections in Euskadi

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(this map shows the largest party, percentages given here include invalid votes - Spain counts certain invalid votes in the whole total).

For those of you who didn't follow the local elections in Euskadi, the PNV won 30% against 25.4% for Bildu. The PSE-EE, which currently governs the CAPV through a pact with the PP, won 16.3% and the PP won 13.5%. These were the worst results for the Socialists since 1980 and the worst for the PP since 1991.

Bildu is a new coalition, almost banned, formed by the old dwindling EA (taken over by left-wingers recently, and allegedly by Batasuna) and smaller outfits. Madrid claims that Bildu is the latest incarnation of Batasuna, ETA's political wing, though Bildu has condemned violence and even the Spanish judiciary decided not to expediently ban them (which is rare, considering they've killed ETA-M's every front in the egg since 2003 or so). It had a huge success, winning 25% of the vote and the most seats in the CAPV. Its victory in the longtime Socialist stronghold of Donostia-San Sebastian was its highlight success. The PNV had a pretty mediocre result - though it finally won an absolute majority in its Bilbao stronghold. It had been theorized that the demise of ETA would benefit the PNV as it could take back the votes of old ETA supporters, but at least for now there seems to be a serious nationalist (governing) alternative to the PNV which hasn't really happened since the 1980s with EA.

Bildu won big in Gipuzkoa, which is the most nationalist and Basquophone province. Small Basque industrial towns in the mountains have a long history of support for the abertzale parties. Bizkaia is the second most-nationalist province but the birthplace and stronghold of the PNV (in the Catholic Euskara-speaking rural small towns). But significantly, Bildu won Gernika which is the symbolic heart of Basque independence and nationalism (the oak of Gernika was where Spanish kings in the past took oaths of fidelity to the fueros). In a lot of small heavily Basque towns, the espanolista parties poll like the plague. That is if they even bother to run. Although the PP and PSE have a presence in nearly all towns now, in the heydays of ETA they struggled to find candidates in those villages as people were scared of publicly associating their name to the 'enemies' (most ETA murders in the 90s were PP or PSE councillors).

The PSE did really badly, which might come from a rebuke of the PSE-PP 'espanolista' alliance which elected Patxi Lopez as Lehendakari in 2009. The PSE has never been as lite-nationalist as the PSC which is sometimes borderline nationalist, but it does draw some support (more so in general elections) from moderate nationalists. PSE-PP alliances have never worked to the PSE's advantage, and Lopez looks like a douche considering he won the PSE's leadership a few years back as the anti-PP alliance candidate. The PSE used to govern well with the PNV in the 1990s but relations soured with the PNV's nationalist turn in 1998 and the Lizarra pact with HB and then in 2003 the Ibarretxe plan.

that map above is a really sad map... I am friends of the general secretary of the PSOE in Mondragon... We really thought he could win there, and after ETA killed Isaias Carrasco, well... he thought the people would be behind him =(

Epic map time:

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I'd be open to explaining patterns or something if there's interest.

Yeah, epic map is definitely epic ! :D

Where do the rich foreigners live?

The costal PP areas are touristic areas?

Almeria, Málaga, and some in Cadiz.


Yes.

No, that isn't entirely correct. Almeria's coastal areas are mostly dominated by small property (especially around El Ejido  fruit farms which use some special harvesting technique using the sand and water and something. It's a bunch of conservative small landowners, set up first under Franco and grew rapidly in the 1980s. They hired a bunch of Arabs to work the land, but they're also heavily racist since some bad racial riots in 2000 in El Ejido (where the PP mayor basically said that it was "understandable" that whites were going on a crusade against Arabs). I believe they're also quite rich, or at least if not they're free market entrepreneur types. But, yeah, around Malaga/Marbella is where old people go to die and where condos sprung up unregulated like crazy and pretty much illegally (especially in Marbella under mayor Jesús Gil, a crooked developer).

If somebody's interested, I could find my book which explains the irrigation and harvest method. It's quite interesting.

Ah, the Costa del Crime, as once was.

Yah, the sharp right wing trend (and population growth) in Almeria and points north - outside this map - is one of the most salient features of Spain's electoral geography post 75.

Ah, I'd always wondered the reason for that. Had a rough idea, but not the specifics (and wouldn't have guessed anything to do with agriculture).

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Thanks Hash for teaching us by these wonderful maps ;).

Random stuff on Almeria:

The technique envolves blowing the surface out, bringing soil, building a short wall around it and covering it (to create a greenhouse-like environment), a tunnel for water, laying manure over it (for heat or something) and then a bunch of sand. Fruits of various kind are grown and often come out ahead of schedule. It increasingly requires immigrants, given that Spaniards don't want to do it anymore. It also creates a bunch of environmental (water) problems.

Most of it is concentrated around El Ejido in the Campo de Dalias but also east of Almeria in the Campos de Nijar. Sure you have some old people dying there, but if you look at satellite images you see the huge amount of greenhouses:
http://maps.google.com/?ll=36.726227,-2.755165&spn=0.181339,0.363579&t=h&z=12

Or in Streetview: http://maps.google.com/?ll=36.735177,-2.766348&spn=0,0.090895&t=h&z=14&layer=c&cbll=36.735177,-2.766348&panoid=Xrpz7nYjm232CKH9tfHEdQ&cbp=12,84.99,,0,1.44

Random maps from CIS polls (2010) for each CCAA:

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% who say they identify only as region x or more as region x than Spanish (eg: only Basque + more Basque than Spanish)
the correlation between this metric and the PP vote 2008 is -0.79.

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% of self-id Catholics and other faiths (such as Muslims) who go to church more than once a week or every Sunday (Melilla has 42% claiming other faiths eg Muslim, 40% claiming Catholics. both are heavily devout). The Canaries are really not into church, only 9.6%.

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% saying their region should have more autonomy

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difference between % who say they identify only as region x or more as region x than Spanish AND % who say they identify only as Spanish or more Spanish than region x. Greener means more heavily regional-identification, oranger means more heavily Spanish.

This is all polling data, so big MOE and all, but data seems pretty accurate (except Navarre, which is abnormaly low on Catholics and abnormaly left-wing in self-id).

I am not sure, Navarra could be called "ubnormally left-wing". Navarra is conservative - but, at the same time, it has a very strong idenity. The place does have a very strong ID. It's the last part to be absorbed into Spain as we know it, it has the ancient Fuero tradition and it has always been recognized as an Autonomous ("Foral") land: it is the only territory to have preserved this status, at least nominally, even under Franco. Notably, even the main right-wing party there (UPN) is strongly regionalist and separate from (though frequently allied with) the pan-Spanish PP. Regionalism in Navarra is not a left-wing feature. When you add the Basque element in the North, the two "non-Spanish" identities are bound to have allegiance of a very significant proportion of the population.

Interesting maps... No big surprise on regional identities (though I didn't know Andalucia and Extremadura had such a regional identity).

I know that, if you carefully read what I wrote. I was saying that the poll's sample in Navarre was abnormally left-wing (3.99 on 1 left 10 right scale). Those who say Navarre is leftie need to get their head checked.