Fernando G. Urbaneja | When thinking about how to define the current legislature now that it has surpassed the two-thirds mark of its journey, choosing a definition is no simple task. Terms like “broken,” “complicated,” “uncertain,” “useless,” “sterile,” or “fragile” could serve… but I settle for something more generic: “strange” (rara), understood as a singular exception, as unique—though it could well be a prologue to what we have yet to experience. This singularity begins from minute one, from its very constitution. It is based on two coalition pacts between parties with parliamentary representation, which in turn are subdivided into several others of limited transparency and efficacy. First, a coalition government pact between PSOE-PSC and Sumar that accounted for 154 seats, from which four Podemos deputies—now assigned to the mixed group—have since departed. Additionally, there is an investiture pact (not a “legislature” pact, though it holds up for lack of an alternative) that adds 27 seats: two Catalan groups, two Basque groups, and deputies from Galicia (1), Valencia (1), and eventually, another from the Canary Islands. Everything depends on the price of each vote. From all this emerges an investiture majority of 181 votes, compared to 169 for the alternative. Consequently, this is a legislature with too many crutches to walk, yet without an alternative, as any other option holds little appeal for the nationalist parties that grant the majority. In short, it is poor health with no other choice.
None of this prevents it from lasting, as the primary rule for these coalitions is to prioritize finishing the term over any other alternative. The optimum is to endure, and there are no acceptable sub-optimums. The result is that the development of parliamentary activity, especially in its legislative facet, is highly uncertain. Clear proof of this is that throughout the legislature, no General State Budget project has been approved; the project for this year, 2026, has not even been presented. This constitutes a manifest breach of Article 134 of the Constitution, which in its third section states: “The Government SHALL present the General State Budgets before the Congress at least three months before the expiration of those of the previous year.”
Two-thirds of the term have seen the approval of up to 60 laws (largely decree-laws), which contrasts with the 291 approved in the previous term. So far this year, eight laws have been passed (six to validate decree-laws), one on social economy, and one legislative proposal on multi-recidivism. Furthermore, the government has failed with four decree-laws that were not validated. Legislative performance, as the term progresses, could not be poorer. Indeed, the Prime Minister was right when he announced that one can govern without resorting to Parliament, as strange as that statement seemed at the time. All of this justifies the descriptor “strange, strange, strange” applied to the legislature and the evolution of Spanish politics—which some claim is common in Europe, though it is not quite so. How many countries lack a Budget for three consecutive years despite their complex coalitions? Exactly: “strange, strange, strange.”
