El Senado de España The Spanish Senate
Type	Upper house
Houses	Senate
President	Francisco Javier Rojo García, PSOE PSE-EE since 2004
Members	259
Political groups	PP, PSOE, ECP, PNV, CiU, CC, Mixto
Last elections	2004
Meeting place	Palacio del Senado, Plaza de la Marina Española, Madrid
Web site	www.senado.es

Spain

This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Spain Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... For the demesne in The Keys to the Kingdom series, see The House An upper house is one of two chambers of a bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the lower house. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Year 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Peoples Party (Spanish: Partido Popular, PP) is the largest right-wing political party in Spain. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... The Catalan Agreement of Progress (Catalan: , ECP) is a union of leftist and catalanist political parties in Catalonia. ... The Basque Nationalist Party is a political party in the Basque region of Spain. ... Convergence and Unity (Convergència i Unió, CiU) is a political party in Catalonia, Spain. ... This article is part of or related to the Liberalism series Categories: Politics stubs | Liberal related stubs | Liberal parties | Spanish political parties ... This article is about the Spanish capital. ... Image File history File links Escudo_de_España_(mazonado). ... Politics of Spain takes place in a framework of a parliamentary representative democratic constitutional monarchy, whereby the Monarch is the Head of State and the President of the Government is the head of government and of a pluriform multi-party system. ...

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The Spanish Senate (Senado de España in Spanish) is the upper house of Spain's parliament, the Cortes Generales. Coat of Arms of the King of Spain King of Spain redirects here. ... Juan Carlos I (baptized as Juan Carlos Alfonso Víctor María de Borbón y Borbón-Dos Sicilias; born January 5, 1938, Rome, Italy) is the reigning King of Spain. ... The President of the Government of Spain (Spanish: Presidente del Gobierno), sometimes known in English as the Prime Minister of Spain, is the Spanish head of government. ...   (IPA: ) (born 4 August 1960), better known under his second surname Zapatero, is the Prime Minister of Spain. ... (1977 - 1979): Council of Ministers of Spain (1st Legislature) (1979 - 1982): Council of Ministers of Spain (2nd Legislature) (1982 - 1986): Council of Ministers of Spain (3rd Legislature) (1986 - 1989): Council of Ministers of Spain (4th Legislature) (1989 - 1993): Council of Ministers of Spain (5th Legislature) (1993 - 1996): Council of Ministers... The Cortes Generales (Spanish for General Courts) is the legislature of Spain. ... The Spanish Congress of Deputies (Spanish: Congreso de los Diputados) is the lower house of the Cortes Generales, Spains legislative branch. ... The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the largest party not in government in Spanish Congress of Deputies. ... Political parties in Spain lists political parties in Spain. ... Elections in Spain gives information on election and election results in Spain. ... Won by a Mr Martin J Hollerwatch of 34 Clackton Road, Cumberbatch-On-Sea (El Partido Malvado - The Evil Party) through a sliding majority poll of fifty to something. ... Results for the 1979 Spanish general election Reference El País official webpage (spanish) Congreso de españa official webpage (spanish) ... PSOE and PSC presented two different candidatures: PSOE in Spain and PSC (Catalan Social Party) only in Catalunya. ... References El País official webpage (spanish) http://www. ... External links Official results Categories: Elections in Spain ... External links Official results Categories: | ... External links Official results Categories: Elections in Spain ... Legislative elections were held in Spain on March 12, 2000. ... Map of Spains electoral circumscriptions, and the parties leading in each circumscription in the election for the Congress of Deputies Legislative elections were held in Spain on March 14, 2004. ... Legislative elections will be held in Spain in March 2008. ... The Spanish Judiciary is the combination of the Court and Tribunals, composed of Judges and Magistrates that have the power to administrate justice in the name of the King. ... The Constitutional Court of Spain (Spanish: Tribunal Constitucional de España) is the highest judicial body with the power to determine the constitutionality of acts and statutes of the Spanish Government. ... 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Andalucia - Parlamento de Andalucia Aragon - Cortes de Aragón Asturias - Junta del Principado Basque Country - Basque Parliament Canary Islands - Parlamento de Canarias Cantabria - Parlamento de Cantabria Castilla y León - Cortes de Castilla y León Castilla La Mancha - Cortes de Castilla La Mancha Catalonia - Parlament de Catalunya Extremadura - Asamblea... In addition to its seventeen autonomous communities, Spain is divided into fifty provinces. ... Comarcas of Spain In Spain traditionally and historically, some provinces are also divided into comarcas (singular comarca). ... The municipalities of Spain (Spanish: municipios), 8111 in total, are the basic level of Spanish local government. ... Spain is a democracy with a Constitutional monarch. ... The European Union or EU is a supranational and international organization of 27 member states. ... After the return of democracy following the death of General Franco in 1975, Spains foreign policy priorities were to break out of the diplomatic isolation of the Franco years and expand diplomatic relations, enter the European Community, and define security relations with the West. ... Information on politics by country is available for every country, including both de jure and de facto independent states, inhabited dependent territories, as well as areas of special sovereignty. ... A parliament is a legislature, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system modelled after that of the United Kingdom. ... The Cortes Generales (Spanish for General Courts) is the legislature of Spain. ...

It has 259 members, 208 of whom are directly elected by popular vote, with the other 51 being appointed by the regional legislatures. All senators serve four-year terms.

The last election was held on 14 March 2004. The results were as follows (regional legislatures-appointed members are counted separately): is the 73rd day of the year (74th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Start of the 8th term

	PP	PSOE	ECP	PNV	CiU	CC	Other	Total
Outgoing	127 + 24 151	53 + 14 67	8 + 4 12	6 + 1 7	8 + 2 10	5 + 1 6	1 + 5 6	208 + 51 259
Incoming	102 + 24 126	79 + 15 94	12 + 4 16	6 + 1 7	4 + 2 6	5 + 1 6	0 + 4 4	208 + 51 259
Change	-25	+27	+4	0	-4	0	-2	0

(Absolute majority is 130 seats) Composition of the Spanish Senate. ... The Peoples Party (Spanish: Partido Popular, PP) is the largest right-wing political party in Spain. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... The Catalan Agreement of Progress (Catalan: , ECP) is a union of leftist and catalanist political parties in Catalonia. ... The Basque Nationalist Party is a political party in the Basque region of Spain. ... Convergence and Unity (Convergència i Unió, CiU) is a political party in Catalonia, Spain. ... This article is part of or related to the Liberalism series Categories: Politics stubs | Liberal related stubs | Liberal parties | Spanish political parties ...

This article does not cite any references or sources. ... The Catalan Agreement of Progress (Catalan: , ECP) is a union of leftist and catalanist political parties in Catalonia. ... Logo of the Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC) party. ... Logo of the PSC party Partit dels Socialistes de Catalunya (Socialist Party of Catalonia) is a political party in Catalonia, Spain. ... Logo of the ICV Initiative for Catalonia - Greens (Iniciativa per Catalunya - Verds, ICV) is a political party in Catalonia, Spain. ... United and Alternative Left (Esquerra Unida i Alternativa) is a political party from Catalonia, Spain. ... The Peoples Party (Spanish: Partido Popular, PP) is the largest right-wing political party in Spain. ... Convergence and Unity (Convergència i Unió, CiU) is a political party in Catalonia, Spain. ... The Democratic Convergence of Catalonia (Convergència Democràtica de Catalunya) is a political party in Catalonia, Spain. ... The Democratic Union of Catalonia is a political party in Catalonia, Spain. ... The Basque Nationalist Party is a political party in the Basque region of Spain. ... This article is part of or related to the Liberalism series Categories: Politics stubs | Liberal related stubs | Liberal parties | Spanish political parties ...

Elections to the Senate

In Spain, elections to the upper house have always been held at the same time as elections to the lower. Nevertheless, it is actually possible to hold them separately if the President of the Government decides to propose H. M. the King to call elections only for one of the chambers (according to article 115 of Spanish Constitution). The method is completely different for each house. While the Congress of Deputies uses the simple D'Hondt method of party list proportional representation to allocate seats in each constituency, with each constituency's seats determined by its population, the Senate members are selected in 2 different ways: election by partial bloc voting and appointment from regional legislatures. Constitution of Spain - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins/monobook/IE50Fixes. ... The Spanish Congress of Deputies (Spanish: Congreso de los Diputados) is the lower house of the Cortes Generales, Spains legislative branch. ... The DHondt method (equivalent to Jeffersons method, and Budder-Ofer method) is a highest averages method for allocating seats in party-list proportional representation. ... Party-list proportional representation systems are a family of voting systems used in multiple-winner elections (e. ... Bloc voting (or block voting) refers to a class of voting systems which can be used to elect several representatives from a single multimember constituency. ...

Directly elected members

The majority of the members of the Senate (actually 208 out of 259) are directly elected by the people. Each province (except insular ones) forms a constituency and is granted 4 senators (population doesn't count here, so the province of Madrid, roughly 6 million people, is very underrepresented compared to Soria's 100,000 inhabitants). Insular provinces are treated specially, and each big island (or group of small islands) is granted a number of senators between 1 and 3 as follows. The larger islands of the Balearics (Baleares) and Canaries (Canarias) - Mallorca, Gran Canaria, and Tenerife - are assigned three seats each, and the smaller islands - Menorca, Ibiza-Formentera, Fuerteventura, Gomera, Hierro, Lanzarote and La Palma - one each; Ceuta and Melilla are assigned two seats each A province is a territorial unit, almost always a country subdivision. ... Capital Madrid Official language(s) Spanish Area  â€“ Total  â€“ % of Spain Ranked 12th  8,030. ... Soria province Soria is a province of central Spain, in the eastern part of the autonomous community of Castile and León. ...

The candidates sheet for Madrid with 3 votes cast

In the elections to the Senate (opposed to the elections to the Congress of Deputies), each party nominates 3 candidates (fewer in island constituencies). Then, all candidates are printed (sorted by party) on a single (very big, usually DIN A3 or bigger) sheet of ochre (sepia) color, called a bedsheet (Spanish sábana). Within a party the names are sorted by surname. This has the silly but perverse effect that candidates with a surname earlier in the alphabetic order usually receive more votes than their later comrades. Download high resolution version (1600x747, 158 KB) This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... Download high resolution version (1600x747, 158 KB) This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... The Spanish Congress of Deputies (Spanish: Congreso de los Diputados) is the lower house of the Cortes Generales, Spains legislative branch. ... ISO 216 specifies international standard (ISO) paper sizes used in most countries in the world today. ... This article is about the color. ... In Spanish, Portuguese, and Catalan speaking regions of the world, people have at least two surnames. ...

Each voter can cast up to 3 votes (fewer in island constituencies) by crossing the empty square at the left of the candidate selected from any party. If more than 3 votes are cast, all votes are null, but if fewer than 3 votes are cast, the remaining votes are counted as blank votes. This is the only case in Spanish democracy where voters vote for individuals rather than a party list. As part of their propaganda efforts, parties usually mail voters pre-marked sheets before the election. The 4 top candidates are elected as senators. Although they are not required to do so, voters usually cast all their three votes for candidates from the same party. As a result, usually 3 senators from the most popular party are appointed, and 1 senator for the second party; sometimes a 2-2 result is obtained. A Protest vote is a vote cast in an election to demonstrate the casters unhappiness with the choice of candidates or refusal of the current political system. ... Party lists are used in elections to legislatures which use Party-list proportional representation or additional member proportional representation to designate a partys nominees in the at-large portion of the vote. ...

Regional legislatures-appointed members

The legislatures of the autonomous communities can appoint senators from their own ranks. Each legislature can appoint up to population/1000000 (rounded) senators, that is, approximately 1 senator per million of people. Currently, regional legislatures appoint 51 senators, even though the Spanish population is 42 million, because of rounding issues (Madrid's population is 5.6 million, but it elects 6 senators). Spains fifty provinces (provincias) are grouped into seventeen autonomous communities (comunidades aut nomas), in addition to two African autonomous cities (ciudades aut nomas) (Ceuta and Melilla). ... Capital Madrid Official language(s) Spanish Area  â€“ Total  â€“ % of Spain Ranked 12th  8,030. ...

Usually, the legislature-appointed members reflect the scaled composition of the regional legislatures, but there isn't a legal requirement.

Role

The Spanish parliamentary system is an asymmetric bicameral one, thus meaning that the Congress of Deputies has more functions by itself and can also override nearly all the votes in the Senate. The Congress is the only of the two chambers which can grant confidence to a prime minister. It can override all Senate votes by an absolute majority. The Senate has reserved functions in the appointment of constitutional posts, such as judges of the Constitutional Tribunal or the Members of the Judicial Power. The Senate holds sole responsibility on forcing a regional president to fulfill his functions, as established in article 155 of the Spanish Constitution. This has never occurred, as of 2007. The Spanish Congress of Deputies (Spanish: Congreso de los Diputados) is the lower house of the Cortes Generales, Spains legislative branch. ...

Since early in the Spanish democracy, there have been talks of reforming the Senate. One of the studied proposals is making the Senate a chamber representing the autonomous communities of Spain, thus advancing in the federalization of Spain. Autonomous communities of Spain. ... A map displaying todays federations. ...

External links

• Official Senate web page (Spanish)