In Politics, the most striking change is that today change strikes nobody. To the young, Franco's decades of power are ancient history. It is only 19 years since the last attempted coup, yet by now no one, young or old, can imagine another. Politics may be sharp—the bringing-down of Mr Gonzalez, eg—but the result is, well, just a different government. That is a change from days a lot further ago than Franco's. Much of Spain's political history since 1800 has been a tale of savage partisan strife, not least in the short-lived republic that he overthrew. The civil war, not 65 years past, saw countless atrocities; Franco's rebels, especially, butchered their political opponents with a zeal that might leave Chile's General Pinochet astounded at his own moderation. Today the Socialists and Mr Aznar's People's Party happily steal each other's clothes. The PP lives readily with the abortion law that it fought bitterly in the 1980s.
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