Thinking about how to define the current legislature as it has surpassed two-thirds of its term, it is not easy to choose a definition. It could be described as broken, complicated, uncertain, useless, sterile, fragile… but I prefer something more generic, which is “strange,” understood as singularly exceptional, as unique, although it may be a prelude to what we have yet to know. The singularity begins from minute one, from its constitution. It is based on two coalition agreements between parties with parliamentary representation, which in turn are subdivided into several more with limited transparency and effectiveness. Firstly, a coalition government agreement between PSOE-PSC and Sumar that added up to 154 seats, from which four deputies from Podemos have now joined the mixed group. Additionally, there is another investiture agreement (not a legislative one, although it holds up in the absence of another alternative) that adds 27 seats (two Catalan groups, two Basque, and deputies from Galicia (1), Valencia (1), and, potentially, another from the Canary Islands. Everything depends on the price of each vote. From all this, the investiture majority emerges with 181 votes, compared to 169 votes for the alternative. Thus, it is a legislature with too many crutches to walk, although without an alternative since any other option is not very appealing for the nationalist parties that provide the majority. So, a poor health without options.
All of this does not prevent it from lasting since the number 1 of the coalitions prioritises finishing the legislature over any other alternative. The optimal situation is to last, and there are no acceptable sub-optimal conditions. The result is that the development of parliamentary activity, especially in its legislative aspect, is very uncertain. A good example is that throughout the legislature, no General Budget project has been approved, not even the one for this year 2026 has been presented, with a manifest violation of article 134 of the Constitution, which in its third section states: “The Government SHALL present the General State Budgets to Congress at least three months before the expiration of those from the previous year.”
Two-thirds of the legislature have allowed the approval of up to 60 laws (largely royal decrees) which contrasts with the 291 approved in the previous legislature. So far this year, 8 laws have been approved (6 to validate royal decrees), one on social economy and one legislative proposal on repeat offenders. And the government has failed with four unvalidated royal decrees. Legislative performance, as the legislature progresses, cannot be poorer. Indeed, the President of the Government was right when he announced that it is possible to govern without resorting to Parliament, however strange such a statement seemed at the time. All of this justifies the label of “strange, strange, strange” applied to the legislature and to the Spanish political evolution that some claim is usual in Europe, but it is not so much. How many countries lack a Budget, with manifest constitutional violations, for three consecutive terms despite their complex coalitions? Well, that’s it, “strange, strange, strange.”
