Run by a military dictator until the 1970s, Spain emerged in the early 2000s as the social democratic poster child for the European Union. Then the global economy collapsed in 2008, and suddenly Spain was suffering from Depression-era levels of unemployment.
Being one of the world’s top 10 economies, and the fourth largest member of the eurozone, the country lost many of the gains made after the introduction of the common European currency during the crisis.
