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Cortes Generales

General Courts
Cortes Generales
12th legislature
Coat of arms or logo
Type
Type
Houses Senate
Congress of Deputies
Leadership
Ana Pastor (PP)
Since 2016
Structure
Seats 616
266 senators
350 deputies
Spanish Senate election, 2015 results.svg
Senate political groups
June 2016 Spanish Congress of Deputies.svg
Congress of Deputies political groups
Elections
Senate last election
26 June 2016
Congress of Deputies last election
26 June 2016
Senate next election
before 2019
Congress of Deputies next election
Before 2019
Meeting place
Senate
Palacio del Senado
Plaza de la Marina Española
Centro, Madrid
Kingdom of Spain

Congress of Deputies
Palacio de las Cortes
Carrera de San Jerónimo
Centro, Madrid
Kingdom of Spain
Website
Cortes Generales (Spanish)

The Cortes Generales (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈkortes xeneˈɾales], General Courts) is the legislature of Spain. It is a bicameral parliament, composed of the Congress of Deputies (the lower house) and the Senate (the upper house). The Cortes has power to enact any law and to amend the constitution. Moreover, the lower house has the power to confirm and dismiss the President of the Government (prime minister).

The system of Cortes arose in the Middle Ages as part of feudalism. A "Corte" was an advisory council made up of the most powerful feudal lords closest to the king. The Cortes of León was the first parliamentary body in Western Europe. From 1230, the Cortes of Leon and Castile were merged, though the Cortes' power was decreasing. Prelates, nobles and commoners remained separated in the three estates within the Cortes. The king had the ability to call and dismiss the Cortes, but, as the lords of the Cortes headed the army and controlled the purse, the King usually signed treaties with them to pass bills for war at the cost of concessions to the lords and the Cortes.

With the reappearance of the cities near the 12th century, a new social class started to grow: people living in the cities were neither vassals (servants of feudal lords) nor nobles themselves. Furthermore, the nobles were experiencing very hard economic times due to the Reconquista; so now the bourgeoisie (Spanish , from burgo, city) had the money and thus the power. So the King started admitting representatives from the cities to the Cortes in order to get more money for the Reconquista. The frequent payoffs were the "Fueros", grants of autonomy to the cities and their inhabitants. At this time the Cortes already had the power to oppose the King's decisions, thus effectively vetoing them. In addition, some representatives (elected from the Cortes members by itself) were permanent advisors to the King, even when the Cortes were not.


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