It is the return to politics in Spain. After the legislative elections, now comes the period devoted to the election of the presidency of Parliament, which constitutes the first stage before the investiture of the Prime Minister. The Socialist Party (PSOE) obtained a sufficient majority to control the hemicycle thanks to the support of the Catalan separatists. However, the prospect of an investiture remains remote for Pedro Sánchez.
It is the socialist Francina Armengol, former president of the Balearic region, who will chair the hemicycle. She was elected president of the Congress of Deputies on Thursday with 178 votes out of the 350 in the Chamber, after obtaining the support of two Catalan independence parties: the ERC, with which she reached an agreement, and Junts, led by Carles Puigdemont, currently on the run in Belgium to escape prosecution in Spain.
Mrs. Armengol is known for her pro-Polisario positions. She was among the few senior PSOE executives to openly oppose Pedro Sanchez’s support for the Moroccan autonomy plan for Western Sahara, announced on March 18, 2022.
The day after this support, she had expressed her “support for the Sahrawi people who deserve to live in peace and freedom”. Francina Armengol recalled her position in August 2022. The question is now that she is at the head of the lower house of the Spanish Parliament if she will remain faithful to the Sahrawi cause.
Ms Armengol won the presidency against the candidate of the conservative People’s Party (PP) who, with 137 seats, failed to obtain the necessary support from other parties to obtain a sufficient majority.
The socialist benefited from the support of the 31 deputies of the left group (Sumar), the six deputies of EH Bildu (Basque separatists), the five deputies of the Basque nationalist party (PNV) as well as a deputy of the Galician nationalists (BNG ). The socialist becomes the fourth woman to occupy the presidency of the Spanish Congress, precisely during the 15th legislature.
She will thus represent the third highest authority in the state, after the king and the president of the government. In the Upper House, the leader of the Popular Party, Pedro Rollán, was elected new president of the Senate with 142 votes, during the constitutive session, obtaining an absolute majority in the first vote.
With all these advances in the calendar, when would there be a president of the Spanish government? If the nomination is won on the first try, the president could take office on September 8. Otherwise, the deadline is set for October at the latest.
According to observers, this election is a good omen for Pedro Sánchez who could be invested again as Prime Minister in the days to come, thus avoiding the holding of new elections. However, the two Catalan pro-independence parties that have given their support to Mr. Armengol stressed that this does not automatically imply that they would support a possible inauguration of Mr. Sánchez as prime minister.
Is the right the big loser? Given the winners in the spring, the Conservatives had actually come out on top in the legislative elections. However, the results were far below their expectations.
This led to their rapprochement with Vox (33 seats), which is already their ally in several regions. However, it is important to note that the extreme right, plagued by internal divisions, finally chose to sit separately during the constitution of Parliament, thus marking its separation.
Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the leader of the People’s Party (right), who is also aiming for the post of Prime Minister, suffered a resounding failure during this opening session of Parliament. Its candidate for the presidency of the assembly, Cuca Gamarra, who hoped to obtain 172 votes and thus anticipated a victory in the event of abstention from the deputies of Junts, finally collected only 139 votes.
These come from the 137 deputies of the PP as well as the elected representatives of two small regional parties. The 33 deputies of Vox, a far-right party on which the PP was counting, have indeed chosen to vote for their own candidate.
Congress will allow co-official languages
To preside over the lower house of parliament, the PSOE still had to make concessions. The new president of the Congress Bureau, Francina Armengol, has announced her intention to allow the use of co-official languages, such as Catalan, Galician and Basque, among others, within the lower house. Spain has also requested that these three languages be recognized as official and working languages within the European Union.
This step is of great importance, because it responds to one of the demands of the nationalist parties to support the investiture of the socialist Francina Armengol as president of the Bureau of the Congress of Deputies. Although the measure is limited to the European Council (it concerns neither the Commission nor the Parliament), it is a symbolic step towards the recognition of these languages among all the languages spoken in the European Union.
Spain is not a pioneer in this area. Of the 27 Member States of the Union, five currently have one or more recognized official languages: Finland (Finnish and Swedish), Ireland (Irish or Gaelic and English), Belgium (French, German and Dutch), Luxembourg (German and French) and Malta (English and Maltese). After her election, Armengol went to La Zarzuela to inform the King, Head of State.
Thus, around August 21, the round of contacts will take place, in which Felipe VI, in accordance with the functions assigned to him by the Constitution, will propose who will be in charge of submitting to the investiture session with a view to becoming president of the Spanish government.
