| Basque Parliament Eusko Legebiltzarra Parlamento Vasco |
|
|---|---|
| Type | |
| Type | Unicameral |
| Leadership | |
| Speaker | Arantza Quiroga Cia, PP since April 3, 2009 [1] |
| Structure | |
| Members | 75 |
| Political groups | EAJ-PNV, PSE-EE, PP, Aralar, Mixed (EA, EB-B, UPyD) |
| Elections | |
| Voting system | Closed party lists in three 25-seat constituencies, with seats allocated using the D'Hondt method |
| Last election | Basque parliamentary election, 2009 |
| Meeting place | |
| Vitoria-Gasteiz, Álava | |
| Website | |
| Website | |
The Basque Parliament (Basque: Eusko Legebiltzarra, Spanish: Parlamento Vasco) is the legislative body of the Basque Autonomous Community of Spain and the elected assembly to which the Basque Government is responsible.
The Parliament meets in the Basque capital, Vitoria-Gasteiz, although the first session of the modern assembly, as constituted by the Statute of Autonomy of the Basque Country, was held in Guernica – the symbolic centre of Basque freedoms – on 31 March 1980.[2] Later in 1980 it started meeting at the premises of the Alavese government. In 1982, it got its own site in a former high school. The symbol of the Parliament is an oaken sculpture by Nestor Basterretxea representing a stylized tree, an allusion to the tradition of Basque political assemblies meeting under a tree, as in Guernica.
It is composed of seventy-five deputies representing citizens from the three provinces of the Basque autonomous community. Each province – Álava, Gipuzkoa and Biscay – elects the same number of deputies, despite their having very different levels of population. This was chosen to earn support from Álava and Navarre, less populated territories where Basque nationalism has less followers. Navarre did not join the autonomous community though. The elections are held using closed list proportional representation with seats allocated on a Provincial basis using the D'Hondt method of allocation. In order to qualify for seats in a particular province, electoral lists must receive at least 3% of the votes cast in that province including votes "en blanco" i.e. for "none of the above." From 1984 to 2001, the Election threshold was 5% in each province. Sessions of the Basque Parliament are conducted in both Basque and Spanish, with translation services.
The current Speaker of the Basque Parliament is Arantza Quiroga Cia, who was elected on the PP ticket in 2009. Thanks to an electoral norm aimed at promoting gender equality within the parliament, the ranks of women and men are close (34 to 41)[3], and in the 2005-2009 term women were in the majority (38-37)[4].
| Basque Country |
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Statute of Autonomy
President
Parliament
Judiciary
Public order
Political parties
Former political parties
Elections
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