Chapter 313: Reform Disputes

As time reached March 1885, a topic that had once sparked heated debate was brought up again: the redrawing of Spain's administrative divisions.

For most countries, the division of administrative districts is not that important. Administrative divisions that have continued for decades, or even hundreds of years, are to a certain extent quite reasonable.

If Spain's land were not so poor, such administrative divisions would actually be perfectly acceptable.

But there is no help for it; because a considerable portion of Spain's land is mountainous, the existing administrative divisions appear less than reasonable.

Spain has a total of 17 regional-level administrative divisions, yet the population is only about 22. 7 million. This means that, on average, each regional-level administrative division has a population of just over 1 million, not even as much as a single city in later generations.

More importantly, regions like Andalusia, Leon, and Catalonia already have populations exceeding 3 million.

This also means that those Spanish regional-level administrative divisions with smaller populations have fewer than 1 million people, and some regions do not even have 500, 00.

In Gao Da's view, it is truly a waste that these regions with only a few hundred thousand people still possess complete regional administrative systems.

If a few regions could be abolished, it would not only streamline the number of officials but also make the population of Spain's various regions more balanced and easier to manage.

On March 11, 1885, during a regular session of the Lower House, a member of the Progressive Party put forward a proposal regarding the reform of administrative planning, which immediately sparked widespread discussion among all members.

This member, named Evans, stated that the current administrative divisions of Spain are highly unreasonable and that at least five administrative divisions should be abolished, merging those with small populations into one, so as to reduce the burden of Spain's administrative expenses.

Evans had clearly conducted research into the situation of Spain's various administrative divisions and had put forward several of his own suggestions.

The total population of the five administrative regions in northern Spain—Asturias, Cantabria, the Basque Country, Navarre, and La Rioja—adds up to only 2. million, ranking only fourth among Spain's existing administrative divisions, slightly higher than the population of the Galicia region.

It is clearly a waste of political resources for Spain to use five times the number of officials and government agencies of the Galicia region to manage five regions with a similar total population.

If these five regions could be merged into one or two, more than half of the officials and political resources could be saved; such a reform is absolutely very meaningful.

Aside from the Balearic and Canary Islands, which are overseas islands and inconvenient to merge, Evans believed that all administrative divisions with a population of less than one million, except for the capital Madrid, could be merged into regions with populations exceeding one million.

This would not only reduce Spain's expenditure of political resources but also improve the efficiency of regional governments and facilitate the government's management of various areas.

Evans's proposal caused an uproar in the Lower House; there were those who expressed support for his ideas, and naturally, many who expressed opposition.

During the open floor session, another member from the Conservative Party, Alva, stood up directly to express his opposing view: "Gentlemen, our administrative divisions are derived from the history of Spain, the history of unification, and have been passed down for hundreds of years."

"Such administrative divisions have witnessed the unification of Spain and have also witnessed the process of integration among Spain's various ethnic groups."

"Take the Basque region mentioned by member Evans, for example; if it were to be merged, the name 'Basque' would be deleted from Spain's administrative regions."

"Undoubtedly, this would severely damage the feelings between Spain and the Basque people. We are all part of the nation, and we should respect the wishes of these people."

"At this critical juncture when our country is gradually prospering and thriving, I do not believe that administrative division reform is a necessary thing."

"If our high-speed development is disrupted because of administrative division reform, then the losses would outweigh the gains."

"Gentlemen, developing industry and the economy is the more important matter; we have no need to set our sights on such trivial matters as administrative divisions."

"Whether there are 17 administrative divisions or some other number, it cannot change the fact that we are Spaniards. How to more effectively unite all Spanish ethnic groups is what we should be considering."

Alva's view was echoed by a portion of the members, most notably those from the Conservative Party.

Some of these members truly held the view expressed by Alva, believing that there was no need for Spain to carry out political division reform.

Others belonged to the vested interest groups of the existing political divisions; they naturally did not want to change the political divisions, as this would damage their own interests.

Before proposing the reform of administrative divisions, Evans had already anticipated that such a proposal would meet with strong opposition from many members.

Any reform is not easy, unless one possesses the political status, influence, and military power that Prime Minister Primo once had.

Even Prime Minister Primo, who possessed all three, had encountered assassination attempts, let alone member Evans, who was merely an ordinary member of the Progressive Party.

However, there were also those who could see the benefits that political division reform would bring to Spain and chose to vote for Evans to support his proposal.

For a time, the number of those supporting political division reform and those opposing it remained about equal; the opponents could not completely veto the proposal, and the supporters could not push the resolution forward.

The meeting ended inconclusively, but the proposal put forward by Evans and the opposing views raised by Alva sparked widespread discussion within Spain.

Some of the public supported merging administrative divisions; after all, some administrative divisions have not only small land areas but also pitifully small populations, and it really seems unnecessary.

Others, like Alva, opposed the reform of administrative divisions. Many of the names of Spain's administrative divisions attest to Spain's history, such as Galicia, the Basque Country, Catalonia, and so on.

The origins of these regional names are either the names of local ethnic groups or the names of states that once existed there.

Although these ethnic groups and states were unified into the big family of Spain for various reasons, this does not mean they have completely disappeared.

If administrative divisions were merged, it would mean that several regions would be removed from the list. For those states that once existed and the ethnic groups that still exist today, this is absolutely a form of harm.

Most of those who opposed it held this view, believing that it is better to leave well enough alone and that there is no need to make major changes to the existing administrative divisions.

Such widespread discussion across the country soon caught Gao Da's attention. Or rather, it caught Gao Da's public attention.

Long before Evans put forward the proposal regarding administrative division reform, Gao Da had already considered the question of whether Spain's existing administrative divisions were reasonable, and the corresponding administrative division reform was also something Gao Da had contacted members of the Progressive Party about, asking them to help propose it in the Lower House.

The reason for choosing the Progressive Party rather than the Conservative Party was mainly the different attitudes of these two parties toward reform.

Although the Conservative Party is the royalist party in theory, its members are as their name suggests, and most have a relatively conservative attitude.

They would not oppose existing reforms, but they were also unwilling to continue carrying out new reforms within Spain.

After all, they had already become vested interest groups; why would they want to damage their own interests to push for reform?

On this point, even the representative figure of the Conservative Party, Prime Minister Ma Deli, could not change the views of the Conservative Party members.

The Conservative Party is composed of a large number of nobles, landlords, and old-guard officials; their class determines their thinking, which is something individuals cannot change.

This is also the reason why Gao Da kept the Progressive Party and the Liberal Party, and allowed the three major parties to compete freely.

If there were only the Conservative Party, any time reform was needed, it would face extreme resistance. Unless Gao Da personally stepped forward to push for the reform, but doing so would make Gao Da bear all the responsibility for the reform, which is something a king should avoid as much as possible.

Seeing the proposal for administrative division reform fall into a stalemate, Gao Da decided to help in secret, helping the Progressive Party push for the implementation of the proposal more quickly.

How to help? Naturally, by reasonably utilizing the public opinion of the Spanish people.

Whether administrative divisions should be reformed is something the Spanish government also needs to refer to the public's opinion on.

As long as the public can reach a unified opinion, would these members elected by the public dare to ignore the public's opinion?

Of course they would not dare.

This also means that as long as Gao Da could guide the Spanish public to support political division reform, he could push for the proposal regarding political division reform to be passed in the Lower House.

On March 12, the Spanish *Sun Newspaper* published an article titled "The Pros and Cons of Administrative Division Reform," which pointed out the pros and cons of administrative division reform with sharp insight and gave examples to explain the reasons why members opposed the reform.

This article immediately attracted the attention of readers and made administrative division reform the hottest news in Spain.

That was not all; another large newspaper, the *Royal Daily*, directly interviewed thousands of ordinary citizens in Spain's two core cities, asking them about their attitude toward administrative division reform.

The number of people interviewed reached as high as over 5, 00, of whom more than 3, 00 supported administrative division reform, and more than 1, 00 expressed that it did not matter much whether administrative division reform happened or not, because no matter how it was reformed, it would not affect their lives.

Only a few hundred people expressed opposition to the reform of administrative divisions, because it would cause the names of representative regions to disappear from Spanish history.

The stark difference in numbers between supporters and opponents immediately made the public believe the reasons pointed out by the *Sun Newspaper* for why those members opposed the reform—that administrative division reform would damage their interests.

Such reports directly put the opposing members on the spot; they could neither explain nor not explain.

If they did not explain, the public's discussion would be vigorous, and the blame they bore would become larger and darker.

If they did explain, it would seem to confirm the fact that they were opposing a proposal beneficial to the country for their own interests.

There was no other way; the Conservative Party members could only find Prime Minister Ma Deli, who had the highest status and greatest power in their party, to seek his help.

To be honest, Prime Minister Ma Deli was unwilling to get involved.

These members could not see it clearly, but Prime Minister Ma Deli saw it perfectly clearly.

The only ones in all of Spain capable of mobilizing these forces of public opinion were the Cabinet government and Gao Da, who was the King.

The Cabinet government had not taken any action during this period, which could only prove that the one mobilizing the forces of public opinion was Gao Da, the King.

Although Gao Da had not expressed his attitude toward administrative division reform, this act of mobilizing public opinion to help the Progressive Party had actually indirectly expressed his attitude.

Prime Minister Ma Deli was not Primo; he had no military power in his hands, nor did he have the vast influence and status of Prime Minister Primo.

Furthermore, Prime Minister Ma Deli was promoted by Gao Da himself, and he had no power to resist Gao Da.

Moreover, Prime Minister Ma Deli himself also believed that the reform of administrative divisions was a good thing, but as Prime Minister, he could not express his attitude too straightforwardly, otherwise, it might cause a large group of people to echo him, losing their own thinking and judgment.

When several Conservative Party members led by Alva found Prime Minister Ma Deli, he had just finished his work.

Upon hearing these members' various views on the disadvantages of administrative division reform and their request for him to express a corresponding attitude in the name of the Prime Minister, Prime Minister Ma Deli smiled and decisively rejected their request: "In my view, administrative division reform is not a good thing in every sense for Spain, but it is absolutely a case where the benefits outweigh the disadvantages."

"As long as we can overcome some of the problems brought about by administrative division reform, we will be able to obtain benefits far greater than the problems."

"Regardless of whether you are truly opposed to administrative division reform, you can no longer change the choice of public opinion."

"Go back; you will know the result after the next Lower House vote. Before that, I hope you can properly investigate the public opinion of Spain and stand on the side of the Spanish people."

"Your Excellency Prime Minister, if you also support opposing administrative division reform, we still have a chance to stop the reform from happening."

"Do you want to see names with such long histories as Catalonia, the Basque Country, Cantabria, Asturias, and Galicia disappear in our reform?"

"As long as you oppose the reform, the Progressive Party will never be able to promote the occurrence of the reform." A Conservative Party member who was still unwilling to accept the reform suggested this to Prime Minister Ma Deli.

The smile on Prime Minister Ma Deli's face froze; he looked at that member, and after a long while, he said: "First of all, I personally support the reform of administrative divisions. Perhaps the names of some regions will disappear because of this, but for all Spaniards, such a sacrifice is worth it."

"We will have more reasonable administrative divisions, and the saved political resources can be invested in other departments; is this not a good thing?"

"Moreover, even if I opposed the reform now, I could not stop it from happening."

"I suggest you investigate the public opinion of Spain more; didn't the *Royal Daily* list the views of the thousands of Spaniards interviewed? Do you want to go against the public opinion of the Spanish people?"

Prime Minister Ma Deli emphasized the word "Royal" in *Royal Daily*.

This somewhat deliberate change in tone immediately made these members suddenly realize the truth.

They finally understood the reason why Prime Minister Ma Deli was unwilling to oppose the reform; it turned out that the King was standing behind the reform.

Having completely dispelled the doubts in their hearts, these Conservative Party members could only bid farewell to Prime Minister Ma Deli and give up the last shred of hope in their hearts to stop the reform.

At this moment, Gao Da was just like Prime Minister Primo had been, possessing both influence and status, and also holding the military power of Spain.

If it was truly a reform that Gao Da wanted to push, then no one could truly oppose it. It was even more impossible for them, as Conservative Party members, to change Gao Da's view, so they could only comply; after all, a mayfly cannot shake a giant tree.

(End of chapter)