President of the Congress of Deputies | |
---|---|
Congress of Deputies | |
Style | The Most Excellent |
Seat | Palacio de las Cortes, Madrid |
Appointer | Congress of Deputies |
Term length | Four years, renewable |
Constituting instrument | Spanish Constitution |
Formation | 24 September 1810 |
First holder | Ramón Lázaro de Dou y de Bassols |
Deputy | Vice Presidents |
Salary | €230,926.48 annually [1] |
Website | www.congreso.es |
The president of the Congress of Deputies (Spanish : Presidente del Congreso de los Diputados) is the speaker of the Congress of Deputies, the lower house of the Cortes Generales (the Spanish parliament). The president is elected among the members of the Congress and is, after the king and the prime minister, the highest authority in the Kingdom of Spain.
Although the president shares the representation of the Cortes Generales with the president of the Senate, the constitutional functions that are granted to the office in terms of royal countersigning and the election process of the Prime Minister (head of government), makes the president of the Congress the de facto leader of the legislative branch. This position is also reinforced by the asymmetric bicameralism that gives greater prominence to the lower house.
The current office was established by the Spanish Constitution of 1978, however, the position has a tradition of more than 200 years, since its creation in 1810 as President of the Cortes of Cádiz.
The current president, of the 15th Cortes Generales (102nd since the Cortes of Cádiz), is Francina Armengol, a member of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party who represents the electoral district of the Balearic Islands. [2]
The speaker or president of the Congress of Deputies is elected during the constitutive session which follows the General Elections of the Kingdom or during the next session following the resignation of the president.
The election of the president needs an absolute majority in the Chamber. If an absolute majority is not reached in the first vote, a second vote is held immediately after the announcement of the results by the temporal president of the Chamber (the elder deputy). [4] The second vote needs only a simple majority (i.e., more «yes» than «no» votes). Each deputy is free to write the name he wants on his ballot, even if those deputies of the majority group vote for a candidate predefined by their party.
The president's term ends in case of death, resignation, loss of the status of deputy or after the dissolution of the Congress of Deputies, prior to the holding of general elections. [5]
The Congress' Standing Rules establishes that there are four vice presidents of the Congress (Part III § 30). All the vice presidents are elected in a unique voting and the four most voted candidates are elected (Part III § 37).
The main task that the standing orders entrust to the vice presidents is that to replace the president in cases of vacancy, absence or impossibility to exercise. However, the standing orders also give the power to the president to delegated on them other responsibilities (Part III § 33).
When the Board of Spokespersons meet, it is needed that at least one of the four vice presidents are present (Part III § 39).
Order | Name | Term start | Party | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1st | Alfonso Rodríguez | 3 December 2019 | PSOE | ||
2nd | José Antonio Bermúdez de Castro | 17 August 2023 | PP | ||
3rd | Esther Gil de Reboleno Lastortres | 17 August 2023 | Sumar | ||
4th | Marta González Vázquez | 17 August 2023 | PP |
The Congress of Deputies is the lower house of the Cortes Generales, Spain's legislative branch, the upper house being the Senate. The Congress meets in the Palace of the Parliament in Madrid.
The Senate is the upper house of the Cortes Generales, which along with the Congress of Deputies – the lower chamber – comprises the Parliament of the Kingdom of Spain. The Senate meets in the Palace of the Senate in Madrid.
The Cortes Generales are the bicameral legislative chambers of Spain, consisting of the Congress of Deputies and the Senate.
The president of the Senate is the presiding officer of the Spanish Senate, the upper house of Spain's Cortes Generales. It is the fourth authority of the country after the Monarch, the Prime Minister and the President of the Congress of Deputies. The president is elected among and by the incumbent senators. When the president is unable to exercise power, vice presidents of the Senate exercise the powers of the Senate president.
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Francesca Lluch Armengol Socias, known as Francina Armengol, is a Spanish politician from the Socialist Party of the Balearic Islands. She currently serves as president of the Congress of Deputies since 2023 and as member of the Congress of Deputies from the Balearic Islands since 2023.
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The Board of Spokespersons is a parliamentary body of the Cortes Generales mainly entrusted with the task of ordering the agenda of the Parliament. As a bicameral legislature, the Cortes Generales are formed by two houses, the Senate and the Congress of Deputies. The Board meets every week.
Ramón Lázaro de Dou y de Bassols was a Spanish professor and priest who was the first President of the Congress of Deputies after being elected by the majority of the Cortes of Cádiz. Lázaro was member of the Cortes representing the Principality of Catalonia from September 19, 1810 to January 15, 1814. He was noted for his pioneering work in the systematization of administrative law.
The 13th Cortes Generales was a meeting of the Cortes Generales, the national legislature of Spain, with the membership determined primarily by the results of the general election held on 28 April 2019. The cortes met for the first time on 21 May 2019 and was dissolved prematurely on 24 September 2019.
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