Congress of Spain

Congress of Deputies Congreso de los Diputados
12th Legislature
Type
Type	Lower house of the Cortes Generales of the Kingdom of Spain
History
Founded	1834
Leadership
President (Speaker)	Ana Pastor, PP Since 19 July 2016
Vice President	Ignacio Prendes, Cs Since 19 July 2016
Prime Minister	Mariano Rajoy, PP Since 21 December 2011
Opposition Leader	Pedro Sánchez, PSOE (not a deputy) Since 18 June 2017
Structure
Seats	350
Political groups	Government (134)      PP (134) Confidence and supply (36)      Cs (32)      Mixed group (4)      UPN (2)      FAC (1)      CCa (1) Opposition (180)      PSOE (84)      UP–ECP–EM (67)      ERC (9)      PNV (5)      Mixed group (15)      PDeCAT (8)      Compromís (4)      EH Bildu (2)      NCa (1)
Elections
Voting system	Party-list proportional representation, D'Hondt method
Last election	26 June 2016
Next election	On or before 26 July 2020
Meeting place
Palacio de las Cortes Madrid, Community of Madrid Kingdom of Spain
Website
www.congreso.es

Government (134)

Confidence and supply (36)

Opposition (180)

The Congress of Deputies (Spanish: Congreso de los Diputados; Basque: Diputatuen Kongresua; Catalan: Congrés dels Diputats; Galician: Congreso dos Deputados) is the lower house of the Cortes Generales, Spain's legislative branch. It is located in the Palace of the Parliament (Plaza de las Cortes, Madrid).

It has 350 members elected by constituencies (matching fifty Spanish provinces and two autonomous cities) by proportional representation using the D'Hondt method. Deputies serve four-year terms. The President of the Congress of Deputies is the analogue to a speaker and presides over debates.

In the Congress, members of the Parliament from the political parties, or groups of parties, form parliamentary groups. Groups must be formed by at least 15 deputies, but a group can also be formed with only five deputies if the parties got at least 5% of the nationwide vote, or 15% of the votes in the constituencies in which they ran. The deputies belonging to parties who cannot create their own parliamentary group form the Mixed Group.