| The Congress of Deputies Congreso de los Diputados |
|
|---|---|
| 10th Legislature | |
| Type | |
| Type | Lower house |
| Leadership | |
| President | Jesús Posada since 13 December 2011 |
| Structure | |
| Members | 350 |
| Political groups |
|
| Elections | |
| Voting system | |
| Last election | 20 November 2011 |
| Meeting place | |
| El Palacio del Congreso de los Diputados Madrid, Community of Madrid Kingdom of Spain |
|
| Website | |
| www.congreso.es | |
The Spanish Congress of Deputies (Spanish: Congreso de los Diputados) is the lower house of the Cortes Generales, Spain's legislative branch. It has 350 members, elected by popular vote on block lists by proportional representation in constituencies matching the Spanish provinces using the D'Hondt method. Deputies serve four-year terms. The President of the Congress of Deputies is the analogue to a Speaker and presides over debates in Spain's lower chamber of parliament.
In the Congress, members of the Parliament from the political parties, or groups of parties, form parliamentary groups. Groups must be formed by, at least, 15 MPs, but a group can also be formed with only five MPs if the parties in it got, at least, 5% of the nationwide vote, or 15% of the votes in the constituencies they run for seats.
The MPs belonging to parties who can't create their own parliamentary group shall form the Mixed Group.[1] The composition of the 10th term Congress is:[2]
| Political party/group | Leader | Spokesperson | Dep. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Popular Group (People's Party)[3] | Mariano Rajoy (PM) | Alfonso Alonso | 185 | |
| Socialist Group (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party)[4] | Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba (LO) | José A. Alonso | 110 | |
| Catalan Group (Convergence and Union) | Josep A. Duran i Lleida | 16 | ||
| Plural Left Group: United Left (8), ICV (2), CHA (1) | Cayo Lara | 11 | ||
| Union, Progress and Democracy Group: Union, Progress and Democracy (5) | Rosa Díez | 5 | ||
| Basque Group (Basque Nationalist Party) | Josu Erkoreka | 5 | ||
| Mixed Group, composed by: Amaiur (7), ERC (3), BNG (2), CC (2), Compromís-Equo (1), Foro Asturias (1), GBai (1), UPN (1)[5] | none | Uxue Barkos (GBai)[6] | 18 | |
| Total | 350 | |||
Contents |
Elections to the Congress were held on November 20, 2011.
| Spain |
This article is part of the series: |
|
|
|
Foreign policy
|
|
Other countries · Atlas |
| Party | Leader(s) | Votes | % | +/– | Seats | +/– | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| People's Party (Partido Popular) | Mariano Rajoy Brey | 10,866,566 | 44.63 | 4.69 | 186 | 32 | ||||
| Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (Partido Socialista Obrero Español) | Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba | 7,003,511 | 28.76 | 15.11 | 110 | 59 | ||||
| Convergence and Union (Convergència i Unió) | Artur Mas i Gavarró | 1,015,691 | 4.17 | 1.14 | 16 | 6 | ||||
| United Left (Izquierda Unida) | Cayo Lara Moya | 1,685,991 | 6.92 | 3.15 | 11 | 9 | ||||
| Amaiur | Iñaki Antigüedad Auzmendi | 334,498 | 1.37 | 1.37 | 7 | 7 | ||||
| Union, Progress and Democracy (Unión, Progreso y Democracia) | Rosa Díez González | 1,143,225 | 4.70 | 3.51 | 5 | 4 | ||||
| Basque Nationalist Party (Euzko Alderdi Jeltzalea) | Iñigo Urkullu Renteria | 324,317 | 1.33 | 0.14 | 5 | 1 | ||||
| Republican Left of Catalonia (Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya) | Oriol Junqueras i Vies | 256,393 | 1.05 | 0.11 | 3 | 0 | ||||
| Galician Nationalist Bloc (Bloque Nacionalista Galego) | Guillerme Vázquez Vázquez | 184,037 | 0.75 | 0.08 | 2 | 0 | ||||
| Canarian Coalition (Coalición Canaria) | Claudina Morales | 143,881 | 0.59 | 0.09 | 2 | 0 | ||||
| Coalition Commitment (Coalició Compromís) | Enric Morera i Català | 125,306 | 0.51 | 0.39 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Asturian Forum (Foru Asturies) | Francisco Álvarez Cascos | 99,473 | 0.40 | 0.41 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Yes to the Future (Geroa Bai) | Uxue Barkos Berruezo | 42,415 | 0.17 | 0.17 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Other parties | 790,072 | 3.24 | 0.30 | 0 | 1 | |||||
| Valid votes | 24,348,837 | 98.71 | 0.7 | |||||||
| Invalid votes | 317,555 | 1.29 | 0.6 | |||||||
| Blank votes | 333,461 | 1.35 | 0.2 | |||||||
| Totals | 24,666,392 | 100.00 | — | 350 | — | |||||
| Electorate and voter turnout | 35,779,208 | 68.94 | 4.91 | |||||||
| Source: Ministerio del Interior de España | ||||||||||
The building, Congreso de los Diputados, has a neoclassical style. It was designed by Narcisco Pascual y Colomer, and built between 1843 and 1850. It sits by the Carrera de San Jerónimo, in Madrid.
|
|||||