In 2005 the Spanish conservatives were still smarting from having lost control of the government. The new leader, Mariano Rajoy set about what proved to be of eight years of bitter opposition, so their objection to the new socialist’s governments bill of same-sex marriage was a given.

Rajoy was to lose another general election in 2008 before he realised that he had to stop pandering to the more conservative elements of his party if he were to ever regain control of Central Government. In 2012, his efforts were rewarded, but it took the biggest economic crisis almost in living memory and a handful of electoral pledges that he had no intention of keeping to achieve it.

However, the more centrally acceptable Rajoy administration had a looming problem; in 2005 they had taken the socialist gay marriage bill to the highest court of the land dealing with constitutional matters, arguing that the said bill was anti-constitutional. Instead of withdrawing his party’s case, he decided to leave to run its course, knowing that judicial matters take forever and a day in Spain.

He was taking a tremendous gamble, because their lawsuit was more symbolic than actually wanting to overturn the law, but if he withdrew it, he would lose face with the hard-liners, yet if he let run its course and his case was accepted, then chaos would ensue as everybody holding such a marriage licence would find themselves with a worthless piece of paper.

Finally the day of reckoning came on the 9th of November when the Constitutional Tribunal threw out the conservative appeal and everybody, including Prime-Minister Rajoy drew a sigh of relief. He had ‘done his duty’ before the hardliners, but chaos had been averted. However, it has come with a price; the moderate/centralist facade of the Partido Popular is badly cracked in the eyes of the Spanish general public; especially amongst the gay community, who might have been tempted to consider voting PP next time around.

For the 22,441 same-sex marriages, it had been seven years of not knowing where they stood legally,  and they won’t be letting Mariano Rajoy forget it in a hurry.

(News/opinion piece: Spain)