Spanish Congress of Deputies

Congress of Deputies Congreso de los Diputados
12th Legislature
Type
Type	Lower house of the General Courts of the Kingdom of Spain
History
Founded	13th July 1977
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	Vacant Since 31 October 2016
Structure
Seats	350
Political groups	Government (134)      PP (134) Confidence and supply (36)      Cs (32)      UPN (2)      CC (1)      FAC (1) 'Useful' opposition (84)      PSOE (84) Other opposition (96)      UP–ECP–EM (67)      ERC (9)      PDeCAT (8)      PNV (5)      Compromís (4)      EH Bildu (2)      NC (1)

The Congress of Deputies of Spain, commonly referred to as simply 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 Spanish provinces) by proportional representation using the D'Hondt method. Congressmen 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 MPs, but a group can also be formed with only five MPs if the parties got at least 5% of the nationwide vote, or 15% of the votes in the constituencies in which they ran. The MPs belonging to parties who cannot create their own parliamentary group form the Mixed Group.

The Spanish Constitution establishes in the Article 68.1 that the Congress of Deputies must be composed of among 300 deputies at least and 400 deputies at most. At present, the chamber has 350 deputies which is determinated by the General Electoral Regim Organic Law, which was approved in 1985.