Politics of Spain

King Felipe VI of Spain

The Spanish monarch, currently, Felipe VI, is the head of the Spanish State, symbol of its unity and permanence, who arbitrates and moderates the regular function of government institutions, and assumes the highest representation of Spain in international relations, especially with those who are part of its historical community.[5] His title is King of Spain, although he can use all other titles of the Crown. The Crown, as a symbol of the nation's unity, has a two-fold function. First, it represents the unity of the State in the organic separation of powers; hence he appoints the prime ministers and summons and dissolves the Parliament, among other responsibilities. Secondly, it represents the Spanish State as a whole in relation to the autonomous communities, whose rights he is constitutionally bound to respect.[6]

The King is proclaimed by the Cortes Generales – the Parliament – and must take an oath to carry out his duties faithfully, to obey the constitution and all laws and to ensure they are obeyed, and to respect the rights of the citizens, as well as the rights of the autonomous communities.[7]

According to the Constitution of Spain, it is incumbent upon the King:[8] to sanction and promulgate laws; to summon and dissolve the Cortes Generales (the Parliament) and to call elections; to call a referendum under the circumstances provided in the constitution; to propose a candidate for prime minister, and to appoint or remove him from office, as well as other ministers; to issue the decrees agreed upon by the Council of Ministers; to confer civil and military positions, and to award honors and distinctions; to be informed of the affairs of the State, presiding over the meetings of the Council of Ministers whenever opportune; to exercise supreme command of the Spanish Armed Forces, to exercise the right to grant pardons, in accordance to the law; and to exercise the High Patronage of the Royal Academies. All ambassadors and other diplomatic representatives are accredited by him, and foreign representatives in Spain are accredited to him. He also expresses the State's assent to entering into international commitments through treaties; and he declares war or makes peace, following the authorization of the Cortes Generales.

In practical terms, his duties are mostly ceremonial, and constitutional provisions are worded in such a way as to make clear the strict neutral and apolitical nature of his role.[9][10] In fact, the Fathers of the Constitution made careful use of the expressions "it is incumbent upon of the King", deliberately omitting other expressions such as "powers", "faculties" or "competences", thus eliminating any notion of monarchical prerogatives within the parliamentary monarchy.[11] In the same way, the King does not have supreme liberty in the exercise of the aforementioned functions; all of these are framed, limited or exercised "according to the constitution and laws", or following requests of the executive or authorizations of the legislature.[11]

The king is the commander-in-chief of the Spanish Armed Forces, but has only symbolic, rather than actual, authority over the Spanish military.[10] Nonetheless, the king's function as the commander-in-chief and symbol of national unity have been exercised, most notably in the military coup of 23 February 1981, where King Juan Carlos I addressed the country on national television in military uniform, denouncing the coup and urging the maintenance of the law and the continuance of the democratically elected government, thus defusing the uprising.[10]

The Spanish Constitution, promulgated in 1978, established explicitly that Juan Carlos I is the legitimate heir of the historical dynasty.[12] This statement served two purposes. First, it established that the position of the King emanates from the constitution, the source from which its existence is legitimized democratically. Secondly, it reaffirmed the dynastic legitimacy of the person of Juan Carlos I, not so much to end old historical dynastic struggles – namely those historically embraced by the Carlist movement – but as a consequence of the renunciation to all rights of succession that his father, Juan de Borbón y Battenberg, made in 1977.[13] Juan Carlos I was constitutional king of Spain from 1978 to 2014. He abdicated in favor of his son Felipe VI.

The constitution also establishes that the monarchy is hereditary following a "regular order of primogeniture and representation: earlier line shall precede older; within the same line, closer degree shall precede more distant; within the same degree, male shall precede female; and within the same sex, older shall precede the younger".[12] What this means in practice, is that the Crown is passed to the firstborn, who would have preference over his siblings and cousins; women can only accede to the throne provided they do not have any older or younger brothers; and finally "regular order of representation" means that grandchildren have preference over the deceased King's parents, uncles or siblings.[13] Finally, if all possible rightful orders of primogeniture and representation have been exhausted, then the General Courts will select a successor in the way that best suits the interest of Spain. The heir presumptive or heir apparent holds the title of Prince or Princess of Asturias. The current heir presumptive is princess Leonor de Borbón.

Façade of the Palace of the Cortes, seat of the Congress of Deputies

The Congress of Deputies is made up of a minimum of 300 and a maximum of 400 deputies (members of parliament) – currently 350 – elected by universal, free, equal, direct and secret suffrage, to four-year terms or until the dissolution of the Cortes Generales. The voting system used is that of proportional representation with closed party lists following D'Hondt method in which the province forms the constituency or electoral circumscription and must be assigned a minimum of 2 deputies; the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla, are each assigned one deputy.

The Congress of Deputies can initiate legislation, and they also have the power to ratify or reject the decree laws adopted by the executive. They also elect, via a vote of investiture, the prime minister (the "president of the Government"), before being formally sworn to office by the King.[9] The Congress of Deputies may adopt a motion of censure whereby it can vote out the prime minister by absolute majority. On the other hand, the prime minister may request at any time a vote of confidence from the Congress of Deputies. If the prime minister fails to obtain it, then the Cortes Generales are dissolved, and new elections are called.

The upper chamber is the Senate. It is nominally the chamber of territorial representation. Four senators are elected for each province, with the exception of the insular provinces, in which the number of senator varies: three senators are elected for each of the three major islands – Gran Canaria, Mallorca and Tenerife – and one senator for Ibiza-Formentera, Menorca, Fuerteventura, La Gomera, El Hierro, Lanzarote and La Palma. The autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla each elect two senators.

In addition, the legislative assembly of each autonomous community designates one senator, and another for each one million inhabitants. This designation must follow proportional representation. For the 2011 elections, this system allowed for 266 senators, 208 of which were elected and 58 of which were designated by the autonomous communities. Senators serve for four-year terms or until the dissolution of the Cortes Generales. Even though the constitution explicitly refers to the Senate as the chamber of territorial representation, as seen from the numbers before, only one-fifth of the senators actually represent the autonomous communities.[10] Since the constitution allowed for the creation of autonomous communities, but the process itself was embryonic in nature – they were formed after the promulgation of the constitution, and the outcome was unpredictable – the constituent assembly chose the province as the basis for territorial representation.[16]

The Senate has less power than the Congress of Deputies: it can veto legislation, but its veto can be overturned by an absolute majority of the Congress of Deputies. Its only exclusive power concerns the autonomous communities, thus in a way performing a function in line with its nature of "territorial representation". By an overall majority, the Senate is the institution that authorizes the Government to adopt measures to enforce an autonomous community's compliance with its constitutional duties when it has failed to do so.

For the first time ever, on Friday, 27 October 2017, the senate voted, by majority, to invoke article 155 of the constitution, which gave the central government the power to remove the government of the autonomous region of Cataluña for acting against the constitution of 1978 by having called an illegal referendum on 1 October.

Aerial view of the Palace of Moncloa, the residence of the prime minister of Spain

At the national level, executive power in Spain is exercised only by "the Government". (The King is the head of state, but the constitution does not attribute to him any executive faculties). The Government is composed by a prime minister, known as the "president of the Government" (Spanish: presidente del gobierno), one or more deputy prime ministers, known as "vice-presidents of the Government" (Spanish: vicepresidentes del gobierno) and all other ministers. The collegiate body composed by the prime minister, the deputy prime ministers, and all other ministers is called the Council of Ministers. The Government is in charge of both domestic and foreign policy, as well as defense and economic policies.[10] As of 2 June 2018, the prime minister of Spain is Pedro Sánchez.

The constitution[17] establishes that after elections, the King, after consulting with all political groups represented in the Congress of Deputies, proposes a candidate to the "presidency of the Government" or prime ministership through the Speaker of Congress. The candidate then presents the political program of his or her government requesting the Congress's confidence. If the Congress grants him confidence by absolute majority, the King then nominates him formally as "president of the Government"; if he or she fails to obtain absolute majority, the Congress waits 48 hours to vote again, in which case, a simple majority suffices. If he or she fails again, then the King presents other candidates until one gains confidence. However, if after two months no candidate has obtained it, then the King dissolves the Cortes Generales and calls for new elections with the endorsement of the Speaker of Congress.[17] In practice, the candidate has been the leader of the party that obtained the largest number of seats in the Congress. Since the constitution of 1978 came into effect, there have not been any coalition governments, even if the party with the largest number of seats has failed to obtained absolute majority, though in such cases the party in government has had to rely on the support of minority parties to gain confidence and to approve the State's budgets.

After the candidate obtains the confidence of the Congress of Deputies, he is appointed by the King as prime minister in a ceremony of inauguration in which he is sworn at the Audience Hall of the Palace of Zarzuela – the residence of the King – and in presence of the Major Notary of the Kingdom. The candidate takes the oath of office over an open copy of the Constitution next to a Bible. The oath of office used is: "I swear/promise to faithfully carry out the duties of the position of president of the Government with loyalty to the King; to obey and enforce the Constitution as the fundamental law of the State, as well as to keep in secret the deliberations of the Council of Ministers".

The prime ministers proposes the deputy prime ministers and the other ministers, which are then appointed by the King. The number and the scope of competences of each of the Ministries is established by the prime minister. Ministries are usually created to cover one or several similar sectors of government from an administrative function. Once formed, the Government meets as the "Council of Ministers", usually every Friday at the Palace of Moncloa in Madrid, the official residence of the prime minister who presides over the meetings, even though, on exceptions they can be held in any other Spanish city. Also, on exceptions, the meeting can be presided by the King of Spain, by request of the prime minister, in which case, the Council informs the King of the State's affairs.

Currently, the government consists of these members:

Portfolio	Name		Party		Took office
Prime Minister		Pedro Sánchez		PSOE	8 January 2020
First Deputy Prime Minister Minister of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation		Nadia Calviño		PSOE	13 January 2020 (First Deputy Prime Minister since 12 July 2021)
Second Deputy Prime Minister Minister of Labour and Social Economy		Yolanda Díaz		PCE	13 January 2020 (Second Deputy Prime Minister since 12 July 2021)
Third Deputy Prime Minister Minister for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge		Teresa Ribera		PSOE	13 January 2020 (Third Deputy Prime Minister since 12 July 2021)
Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation		José Manuel Albares		PSOE	12 July 2021
Minister of Justice		Pilar Llop		PSOE	12 July 2021
Minister of Defence		Margarita Robles		Independent[lower-alpha 1]	13 January 2020
Minister of Finance and Civil Service		María Jesús Montero		PSOE	13 January 2020 (Civil Service since 12 July 2021)
Minister of the Interior		Fernando Grande-Marlaska		Independent[lower-alpha 2]	13 January 2020
Minister of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda		Raquel Sánchez		PSC–PSOE	12 July 2021
Minister of Education and Vocational Training		Pilar Alegría		PSOE	12 July 2021
Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism		Reyes Maroto		PSOE	13 January 2020
Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food		Luis Planas		PSOE	13 January 2020
Minister of the Presidency, Relations with the Cortes and Democratic Memory		Félix Bolaños		PSOE	12 July 2021
Minister of Territorial Policy Spokesperson of the Government		Isabel Rodríguez		PSOE	12 July 2021
Minister of Culture and Sports		Miquel Iceta		PSC–PSOE	12 July 2021
Minister of Health		Carolina Darias		PSOE	13 January 2020
Minister of Science and Innovation		Diana Morant		PSOE	12 July 2021
Minister of Equality		Irene Montero		Podemos	13 January 2020
Minister of Social Rights and 2030 Agenda		Ione Belarra		Podemos	31 March 2021
Minister of Consumer Affairs		Alberto Garzón		IU (PCE)	13 January 2020
Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration		José Luis Escrivá		Independent[lower-alpha 3]	13 January 2020
Minister of Universities		Joan Subirats		CatComú[lower-alpha 4]	20 December 2021

The constitution also established the Council of State, a supreme advisory council to the Spanish government.[18] Though the body has existed intermittently since medieval times, its current composition and the nature of its work are defined in the constitution and subsequent laws that have been published, the most recent in 2004. It is currently composed of a president, nominated by the Council of Ministers, several ex officio councillors – former prime ministers of Spain, directors or presidents of the Royal Spanish Academy, the Royal Academy of Jurisprudence and Legislation, the Royal Academy of History, the Social and Economic Council, the Attorney General of the State, the Chief of Staff, the Governor of the Bank of Spain, the Director of the Juridical Service of the State, and the presidents of the General Commission of Codification and Law – several permanent councilors, appointed by decree, and no more than ten elected councilors in addition to the council's Secretary General. The Council of State serves only as an advisory body, that can give non-binding opinions upon request and to propose an alternative solution to the problem presented.

Relation between the number of people represented by each deputy in each province and the national average (June 2016 elections).

Elections to the Cortes Generales are held every four years or before if the prime minister calls for an early election. Members of the Congress of Deputies are elected through proportional representation with closed party lists where provinces serve as electoral districts; that is, a list of deputies is selected from a province-wide list.[10] Under the current system, sparsely populated provinces are overrepresented because more seats of representatives are allocated to the sparsely populated provinces than they would have if number of seats are allocated strictly according to the population proportion.[10][31]

Not only provinces with small population are over-represented in Spain's election system, the system also tends to favors major political parties.[32] Despite the use of proportional representation voting system, which in general encourages the development of a larger number of small political parties rather than a few larger ones, Spain has effectively a two-party system in which smaller and regional parties tend to be underrepresented.[10][33] This is owing to various reasons:

• Due to the great disparity in population among provinces, even though smaller provinces are overrepresented, the total number of deputies assigned to them is still small and tends to go to one or two major parties, even if other smaller parties managed to obtain more than 3% of the votes – the minimum threshold for representation in the Congress.[33]
• The average district magnitude (the average number of seats per constituency) is one of the lowest in Europe, owing to the large number of constituencies.[34] The low district magnitude tends to increase the number of wasted votes (the votes that could not affect the election results because they have been cast for the small parties which could not pass the effective threshold), and in turn increase the disproportionality (so the number of seats and the portion of votes got by a party becomes less proportional).[35] It is often regarded as the most important factor that limits the number of parties in Spain.[32][36][37] This point is advanced when Baldini and Pappalardo compare it with the case of Netherlands, where the parliament is elected using proportional representation in a single national constituency. There, the parliament is much more fragmented and the number of parties is much higher than in Spain.[36]
• The D'Hondt method (a type of highest average method) is used to allocate the seats, which slightly favors the major parties when compared to Sainte-Laguë method (another type of highest average method) or the normal kinds of largest remainder methods.[38][39] It is suggested that the use of D'Hondt method also contribute to a certain degree, though not as large as the low number of seats per constituency, to the bipolarization of the party system.[32][36]
• The 3% threshold for entering the Congress is ineffective in many provinces, where the number of seats per constituency is so low that the actual threshold to enter the Congress is effectively higher, and thus many parties cannot obtain representation in Congress despite having obtained more than the 3% threshold in the constituency.[32] For example, the actual threshold for the constituencies having 3 seats is 25%, much higher than 3%, making the 3% threshold irrelevant.[33][36] However, in the largest constituencies like Madrid and Barcelona, where the number of seats is much higher, the 3% threshold is still effective to eliminate the smallest parties.[32]
• The size of the Congress (350 members) is relatively small.[31] It is suggested by Lijphart that the small size of parliament may encourage disproportionality and so favor the large parties.[40]

In the Senate, each province, with the exception of the islands, select four senators using block voting: voters cast ballots for three candidates, and the four senators with the greatest number of votes are selected. The number of senators selected for the islands varies, depending on their size, from 1 to 3 senators. A similar procedure of block voting is used to select the three senators from the three major islands whereas the senators of the smaller islands or group of islands, are elected by plurality. In addition, the legislative assembly of each autonomous community designates one senator, and another for each additional one million inhabitants.

Electoral participation, which is not compulsory, has traditionally been high, peaking just after democracy was restored in the late 1970s, falling during the 1980s, but trending upwards in the 1990s.[10] Since then, voting abstention rate has been around one-fifth to nearly one-third of the electorate.[10]

Demonstration led by Republican Left Party of Catalonia in favor of using the term "nation" to define Catalonia in its Statute of Autonomy

Spanish political developments since the early twentieth century have been marked by the existence of peripheral nationalisms and the debate of whether Spain can be viewed as a plurinational federation. Spain is a diverse country with different and contrasting polities showing varying economic and social structures, as well as different languages and historical, political and cultural traditions.[50][51] Peripheral nationalist movements have been present mainly in the Basque Country, Catalonia and Galicia, some advocating for a special recognition of their "national identity" within the Spanish nation and others for their right of self-determination or independence.

The Constituent Assembly in 1978 struck a deliberately ambiguous and imprecise[52] balance between the opposing views of centralism, inherited from Franco's regime, and those who viewed Spain as a "nation of nations". In the second article, the constitution recognizes the Spanish nation as the common and indivisible homeland of all Spaniards, while guaranteeing the right of autonomy of the nationalities and regions of which it is composed. In practice, and as it began to be used in Spanish jurisprudence, the term "nationalities" makes reference to those regions or autonomous communities with a strong historically constituted sense of identity or a recognized historical cultural identity,[53][54] as part of the indivisible Spanish nation. This recognition, and the process of devolution within the State of Autonomies has legitimised the idea of the Spanish State among the "nationalities", and many of its citizens feel content within the current status quo.[55]

However since 1982, the PSOE pursued policies to temper enthusiasm for further devolution and instead sought to harmonise the powers devolved to all autonomous communities. This was interpreted as the re-imposition of centralist control from Madrid by the 'historic nationalities' particularly after a landmark ruling of the Constitutional Court upheld the prerogative of the central government to use Basic Laws to encroach upon devolved jurisdictional powers to promote and protect 'the national interest' of the Spanish state.[56]

Thus tensions between peripheral nationalism and centralism continue, with some nationalist parties still advocating for a recognition of the other 'nations' of the Spanish Kingdom or for a peaceful process towards self-determination. The 2014 Catalan self-determination referendum resulted in a vote of 80.76% for independence, with a turnout percentage of 37.0%, and it was supported by five political parties.

Under the majority governments of the PP in 2000-2004 and 2011-2015 {{quote| ...discussions on territorial reform were replaced with 'a renewed form of Spanish nationalism' and 'a centralizing agenda realigning the party's territorial policy with its traditional centralist and nationalist ideology'.[57]

Amongst the Basic Laws passed in this period, which sought to increase central government control over the regions, was the highly controversial 2013 Spanish Educational Law (Organic Law for the Improvement of Educational Quality). This law sought to determine the language of instruction and curriculum content and was seen as encroaching upon already devolved powers[58] and at odds with existing statutes of autonomy. In 2022, this issue remained controversial and subject to numerous court cases.[59][60]

The model of devolution is often termed asymmetric to express the fact that not all regions have the same powers. This is on the whole seen as advantageous; able to respond to diversity. However one aspect of this asymmetry is a cause of friction (eg in Catalonia), namely that the Basque Country and Navarra can raise their own taxes and negotiate a transfer to Madrid to pay for common services and hence, unlike the other regions, do not contribute to fiscal equalisation across Spain.[61]

Graffiti in Pasaia (2003). "ETA, the people with you" on the left, and Batasuna using several nationalist symbols asking for "Independence!"

The Government of Spain has been involved in a long-running campaign against Basque Fatherland and Liberty (ETA), an armed secessionist organization founded in 1959 in opposition to Franco and dedicated to promoting Basque independence through violent means, though originally violence was not a part of their method. They consider themselves a guerrilla organization but are considered internationally as a terrorist organisation. Although the government of the Basque Country does not condone any kind of violence, their different approaches to the separatist movement are a source of tension between the Central and Basque governments.

Initially ETA targeted primarily Spanish security forces, military personnel and Spanish Government officials. As the security forces and prominent politicians improved their own security, ETA increasingly focused its attacks on the tourist seasons (scaring tourists was seen as a way of putting pressure on the government, given the sector's importance to the economy) and local government officials in the Basque Country. The group carried out numerous bombings against Spanish Government facilities and economic targets, including a car bomb assassination attempt on then-opposition leader Aznar in 1995, in which his armored car was destroyed but he was unhurt. The Spanish Government attributes over 800 deaths to ETA during its campaign of terrorism.

On 17 May 2005, all the parties in the Congress of Deputies, except the PP, passed the Government's motion giving approval to the beginning of peace talks with ETA, without making political concessions and with the requirement that it give up its weapons. PSOE, CiU, ERC, PNV, IU-ICV, CC and the mixed group —BNG, CHA, EA and NB— supported it with a total of 192 votes, while the 147 PP parliamentarians objected. ETA declared a "permanent cease-fire" that came into force on 24 March 2006 and was broken by Barajas T4 International Airport Bombings on 30 December 2006. In the years leading up to the permanent cease-fire, the government had had more success in controlling ETA, due in part to increased security cooperation with French authorities.

Spain has also contended with a Marxist resistance group, commonly known as GRAPO. GRAPO (Revolutionary group of 1 October) is an urban guerrilla group, founded in Vigo, Galicia; that seeks to overthrow the Spanish Government and establish a Marxist–Leninist state. It opposes Spanish participation in NATO and U.S. presence in Spain and has a long history of assassinations, bombings, bank robberies and kidnappings mostly against Spanish interests during the 1970s and 1980s.

In a June 2000 communiqué following the explosions of two small devices in Barcelona, GRAPO claimed responsibility for several attacks throughout Spain during the past year. These attacks included two failed armored car robberies, one in which two security officers died, and four bombings of political party offices during the 1999–2000 election campaign. In 2002, Spanish authorities were successful in hampering the organization's activities through sweeping arrests, including some of the group's leadership. GRAPO is not capable of maintaining the degree of operational capability that they once enjoyed. Most members of the groups are either in jail or abroad.