The Spanish Parliament begins its XV Legislature this Thursday, marked by political fragmentation between the left and right blocks; and the election as president of the Congress of the socialist Francina Armengol It is the first sign of the support that Pedro Sánchez’s PSOE has, with a view to the formation of a new government.
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The new president was elected by an absolute majority with the support of the 121 socialist deputies, the 31 from the leftist group Sumar, as well as various nationalist groups, among which were key the 14 deputies that add up to the Catalan independentists of ERC (Republican Left of Catalonia) and JxCat (Junts per Catalunya).
Armengol prevailed over the candidate of the conservative Popular Party (PP), Cuca Gamarra, parliamentary spokesperson for her party in the previous legislature, who only had the support of the 137 PP deputies plus two attributed to regionalist deputies.
The 33 deputies from the right-wing Vox party voted for their own candidate.
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Francina Armengol, who until last May was regional president of the Balearic Islands (Mediterranean), is the fourth woman to preside over the Spanish Lower House.
In addition to the president, this Thursday the rest of the Congress Table was also elected, the governing body of the chamber, which decides issues such as what issues and when they are debated, so its composition is key to boost or slow down parliamentary initiatives.
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In addition, Congress is the one that votes for the investiture of the President of the Government, who will be the one who obtains the most support among the 350 deputies that make up the chamber, so it may happen that the socialist candidate and current acting head of the Executive, the socialist Pedro Sánchez, be re-elected, despite the fact that his party came in second place, with 121 seats, compared to 137 for the PP.
Why are the Catalan deputies key?
Given the fragmentation that occurs in the current Congress, which emerged from the elections on July 23, this Thursday the support of the Catalan separatists was key to ensuring that the presidency of the Lower House was socialist.
ERC had already supported the investiture of Sánchez in the previous legislature and gave its yes to many of the laws that were approved in the last four years; This Thursday he supported the socialist candidate, but the yes of JxCat, the party led by the former president of the regional government of Catalonia Carles Puigdemont, was also keyfled from the Spanish Justice after the unilateral declaration of independence in 2017.
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However, both parties insist that the agreement for the presidency of Congress does not mean that they support Pedro Sánchez in a future investiture.
The ERC spokesman in Congress, Gabriel Rufián, affirmed this Thursday that this will be “another negotiation”, which will be “much more complicated”.
Puigdemont also warned the PSOE this Thursday that his party’s position regarding the possible investiture of Sánchez is “exactly where it was after the elections” and recalled that today’s pact is limited to the Table of Congress.
To reach the agreement on Thursday, JxCat asked, among other things, that Catalan is an official language in the European Union and that it is also spoken in the Spanish Congress.
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In this sense, the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that Spain has requested by letter that Catalan, Euskera (Basque) and Galician, co-official languages in some Spanish regions, along with Castilian, be included as official languages of the EU.
In the Senate, where the PP has an absolute majority, Senator Pedro Rollán was elected its president.
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The beginning of the legislature
With the constitution of the Spanish Parliament begins the new legislature, which is difficult, given the political fragmentation that occurs in Congress, where neither the PP nor the PSOE have a majority.
starting this thursday the parliamentary groups are constituted, and then the king, Felipe VI, will begin consultations with the different groups, before ordering the formation of the Government.
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Both the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, whose party was the one that obtained the most deputies, and Sánchez, who aspires to obtain the necessary support from other groups, showed their intention to present themselves for the investiture as president of the Executive.
EFE
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