Prince Felipe's New Girl and Constitutional Reform!

Prince Felipe and his wife Princess Letizia are are going to have a second child: a daughter.

The happy couple's announced second pregnancy re-ignited and polarised opinion in Spain about succession to the Spanish throne: something that had previously happened after to the birth of their first daughter in October 2005.

The Spanish Constitution of 1978 dictates that males have priority over women in terms of the order of Spanish succession. However, many political forces believe that there is a need to reform the constitution so that it is non-discriminatory in terms of sex.

But... in order to make such a reform, two-thirds of Spanish MPs would have to approve it in parliament and then a further two-thirds of the voting populace would also have to agree to it in a subsequent referendum.

At the moment it seems unlikely that the mechanism for such a reform will happen due to the approach of the end of the current legislative period in 2008. (See our pages about Spanish Politics for further details about the Spanish political system).

So, for the minute, male successors to Felipe will still have priority over females.

Spanish Talk New Design Now Live!

The new, improved version of Spanish Talk has now been uploaded!

This has taken weeks of effort but should mean that the site is now much easier to maintain and add to. Phew!

Please let me know what you think about it.

Spanish Talk - Site Update

I can't believe the last time I made a post was September 5th 2006!

There are a few reasons for this. I got married in mid-september and went on honeymoon to North America for several weeks (more about that later).

In the last few weeks I have been updating the Spanish Talk site which has been a massive task.

It should be available tomorrow so please have a look at it and leave some comments here.