Senate of Spain

Senate Senado
XI Legislature
Type
Type	Upper house
History
Founded	1837 (disband 1923-1977) 1978 (reinstituted)
Leadership
President	Pío García-Escudero (PP) Since 13 December 2011
First Vice President	Juan José Lucas Giménez (PP)
Second Vice President	Yolanda Vicente (PSOE)
Majority leader	José Manuel Barreiro (PP)
Minority leader	Marcelino Iglesias (PSOE)
Structure
Seats	266
Political groups	Government (147)      PP (147) Opposition (118)      PSOE (62)      United We Can (21)      ERC-CatSí (12)      EAJ/PNV (6)      Mixed group (16)      PDECAT (4)      C's (3)      CC–PNC (2)      Compromís (2)      EH Bildu (1)      ASG (1)      UPN (1)      FAC (1)      NCa (1)      Vacant (2)
Meeting place
Palacio del Senado Centro, Madrid Kingdom of Spain
Website
www.senado.es

The Senate (Spanish: Senado) is the upper house of Spain's parliament, the Cortes Generales. It is made up of 265 members: 208 elected by popular vote, and 57 appointed by the regional legislatures. All senators serve four-year terms, though regional legislatures may recall their appointees at any time.

The last election was held on 26 June 2016. The composition of the 12th Senate is:

Political party/group			Elected	Appointed	Total
		People's Party Group in the Senate	128	19	147
		Socialist Group	42	20	62
		United We Can–In Common We Can–In Tide Group	15	6	21
		Republican Left Group	10	2	12
		Basque Group in the Senate (EAJ-PNV)	5	1	6
		Catalan European Democratic Party	2	2	4
		Citizens–Party of the Citizenry	0	3	3
		Canarian Coalition	1	1	2
		Commitment Coalition	1	1	2
		Basque Country Unite	0	1	1
		Gomera Socialist Group	1	0	1
		Navarrese People's Union	1	0	1
		Asturias Forum	1	0	1
		New Canaries	1	0	1
		Vacant	0	2	2
Total			208	58	266

History

The Spanish senate was instituted by the constitution of 1837 under the regency of Maria Christina of the Two Sicilies. It remained under the regimes of the constitutions of 1845, 1856, 1869 and 1876. It was composed, at that latter time, of three main categories: senators by their own right, senators for life and senators elected. This chamber was suppressed after the coup of General Miguel Primo de Rivera in 1923.

Only after the Spanish transition to democracy in 1978 was it re-instituted.

Organization

Senators form groups along party lines. Parties with fewer than ten senators form the Mixed Group. If the membership of an existing group falls below six during a session, it is merged into the Mixed Group at the next session. For example, Coalición Canaria lost its senate caucus in 2008 after electoral losses reduced its group from six to two. The Basque Nationalist Party, falling from seven to four, "borrowed" senators from the ruling Socialist Party to form their group; in exchange, they supported the election of socialist Javier Rojo as President of the Senate. The PNV group is again under threshold after returning the borrowed Socialists, and it faces dissolution after the current session.

Legally, 133 seats are required for an absolute majority, vacant seats notwithstanding.

Elections to the Senate

To date, senate elections have coincided with elections to the lower house, but the President of the Government (i.e., the Prime Minister) may legally advise the king to call elections for one chamber only, under article 115 of the Spanish Constitution. While the Congress of Deputies is chosen by party list proportional representation, the members of the senate are chosen in two distinct ways: popular election by partial block voting and appointment from regional legislatures.

Directly elected members

Most members of the senate (currently 208 of 266) are directly elected by the people. Each province elects four senators without regard to population. Insular provinces are treated specially. The larger islands of the Balearics (Baleares) and Canaries (Canarias) – Majorca, Gran Canaria, and Tenerife – are assigned three seats each, and the smaller islands - Minorca, Ibiza-Formentera, Fuerteventura, Gomera, Hierro, Lanzarote and La Palma – one each; Ceuta and Melilla are assigned two seats each. This allocation is heavily weighted in favor of small provinces; Madrid, with roughly 6 million people, and Soria, with 100,000 inhabitants, are each represented by four senators.

In non-insular constituencies, each party nominates three candidates. Candidates' names are organized in columns by party on a large (DIN A3 or larger) ochre-colored ballot called a sábana or bedsheet.

Each voter may mark up to three candidates' names, from any party. This is the only occasion when Spanish voters vote for individuals rather than a party list. Panachage is allowed, but typically voters cast all three votes for candidates of a single party. As a result, the four Senators are usually the three candidates from the most popular party and the first placed candidate from the next most popular.

Before 2011, a party could not choose the order of its candidates on the ballot paper; candidates were sorted alphabetically by surname. When a party did not get all three of its candidates elected, this arrangement favored candidates with surnames early in the alphabet. This was the case for 2nd placed parties in every province and for both parties in tight races when voters did not vote for three candidates of the same party (panachage).

Regional legislatures-appointed members

Article 69.5 of the Spanish Constitution empowers the legislative assembly of each autonomous community of Spain to appoint a senate delegation from its own ranks, with one Senator per one million citizens, rounded up. Demographic growth increased the combined size of the regional delegations from 51 to 56 in 2008 for the 9th term.

Conventionally, the proportions of the regional delegations mimic their legislative assemblies, as required in principle by Article 69.5 of the constitution. However, Autonomous Communities have considerable leeway, and a motion to appoint the delegation often requires no more than a plurality. Two anomalous examples are:

• After the 2007 election, the single senator from the Balearic Islands was from neither the largest bloc (the People's Party, with 28 of 59 seats), nor the second-largest (the PSOE, with 16), but in fact from the fourth-largest bloc, the Socialist Party of Majorca, which held only four of 59 seats. This arrangement was part of a five-party coalition agreement. This anomaly was resolved in 2008, when the Balearic Islands gained a second senate seat which was filled by the PP.
• Since 2003, the PSOE has ruled Aragon with support from regionalist parties. In the 2007 election, it won 30 of 67 seats. Nevertheless, Aragon's two appointed senators came from the opposition People's Party (23 seats) and the regionalist Aragonese Party (9 seats).

Due to population growth, Andalusia, the Balearic and Canary Islands, Catalonia, and Madrid each gained a new senator in 2008. Andalusia was the last Autonomous Community to allocate its new seat; it rebuilt its entire delegation after its 2008 regional elections. The distribution after the 2015 election was:

The candidates sheet for Madrid with 3 votes cast

Autonomous Community	Population (2015)	Senators	Senator/pop.-ratio	Distribution
Andalusia	8,399,043	9	933,227
Aragon	1,317,847	2	658,924
Asturias	1,051,229	2	525,615
Balearic Islands	1,104,479	2	552,240
Basque Country	2,189,257	3	729,752
Canary Islands	2,100,306	3	700,102
Cantabria	585,179	1	585,179
Castile and León	2,472,052	3	824,017
Castilla-La Mancha	2,059,191	3	686,397
Catalonia	7,508,106	8	938,513
Extremadura	1,092,997	2	546,499
Galicia	2,732,347	3	910,782
La Rioja	317,053	1	317,053
Madrid	6,436,996	7	919,571
Murcia	1,467,288	2	733,644
Navarre	640,476	1	640,476
Valencian Community	4,980,689	6	830,115
Total	46,454,535	58	800,940	Source:

Key:

•      People's Party Group in the Senate
•      Socialist Group
•      United We Can–In Common We Can–In Tide Group
•      Republican Left Group
•      Basque Group in the Senate (EAJ-PNV)
•      Mixed group
•      Vacant

Role

The Spanish parliamentary system is bicameral but asymmetric. The Congress of Deputies has more independent functions, and it can also override most Senate measures. Only the Congress can grant or revoke confidence to a Prime Minister. In the ordinary lawmaking process, either house may be the initiator, and the senate can amend hostilely or veto, the proposal then being sent back to the lower house, which can override these objections by an absolute majority vote. Organic laws, which govern basic civil rights and regional devolutions, need an absolute majority of both congress and senate to pass.

The process for constitutional amendments is slightly more tangled: the rule is to require a three fifths (60%) of both houses, but if the senate does not achieve such a supermajority and a mixed congress-senate committee fails to resolve the issues, the congress may force the amendment through with a two-thirds vote as long as an absolute majority of the senate was in favour.

On the other hand, the senate has certain exclusive functions in the appointment of constitutional posts, such as judges of the Constitutional Court or the members of the General Council of the Judicial Power. Although it has never exercised this authority, the senate is solely responsible for disciplining regional presidents (article 155 of the Spanish Constitution). Only the senate can suspend local governments. (Local Regime Framework Act article 61.^[1]) It exercised this power in April 2006, dissolving the Marbella city council when most of its members were found to have engaged in corrupt practices.

Senate reform has been a topic of discussion since the early days of Spanish democracy. One proposal would advance the federalization of Spain by remaking the senate to represent the autonomous communities of Spain.

Presidents of the Spanish Senate

Term	President	From	To	Constituency	Political party
Constituent 1977-1979	Antonio Fontán Pérez	July 13, 1977	January 2, 1979	Seville	UCD
I 1979-1982	Cecilio Valverde Mazuelas	April 27, 1979	August 31, 1982	Córdoba
II 1982-1986	José Federico de Carvajal Pérez	November 18, 1982	April 23, 1986	Madrid	PSOE
III 1986-1989		July 15, 1986	September 2, 1989
IV 1989-1993	Juan José Laborda Martín	November 21, 1989	April 12, 1993	Burgos
V 1993-1996		June 29, 1993	January 9, 1996
VI 1996-2000	Juan Ignacio Barrero Valverde	March 27, 1996	February 8, 1999	Badajoz	PP
	Esperanza Aguirre Gil de Biedma	February 8, 1999	January 18, 2000	Madrid
VII 2000-2004		April 5, 2000	October 21, 2002
	Juan José Lucas Giménez	October 22, 2002	January 20, 2004	Castille and León (appointed)
VIII 2004-2008	Francisco Javier Rojo García	April 2, 2004	January 15, 2008	Álava	PSE-EE
IX 2008-2011		April 1, 2008	December 13, 2011
X 2011-2015	Pío García-Escudero Márquez	December 13, 2011	October 27, 2015	Madrid	PP
XI 2016		January 13, 2016	May 3, 2016
XII 2016–		July 19, 2016	Incumbent

Notes

See also

• List of Presidents of the Senate of Spain (1837-1923)

References

1. (Spanish)Spanish Official Gazette: Local Regime Framework Act (Law 7/1985)

External links

• Official website (Spanish)

Coordinates: 40°25′14″N 3°42′46″W / 40.42056°N 3.71278°W