Article published by José Alberto León Alonso in El Día on 01/31/16.
Six weeks have passed since the general elections were held and the Spanish political situation is one of absolute blockage. 42 days after 20-D Spain does not have a Government with full powers at the head of the country. It is assumed that in this period the parties should have been working seriously to form a Government. But the reality is that until now they have not even begun to negotiate. In Spain there is hardly any experience of negotiations for legislative agreements and the longest period that has elapsed between an election and the inauguration of the President of the Government is 62 days, the time it took Aznar to be inaugurated in 1996. But in that case the negotiation began in the week after the elections, in order to attend the King's round of hearings with the political groups with his homework done. Quite the opposite of now, even though the current situation is much more complicated. It is therefore legitimate to wonder what the hell our political representatives have been doing during these six weeks. If they had the slightest bit of shame they would return the salary they received without earning it.
Meanwhile, the political blockade is beginning to take its toll on our economy. Potential investors have put the handbrake on their investments in Spain and they have good reasons to do so because labor legislation, minimum wage, pensions and social security could undergo more or less radical changes depending on who governs. Especially when some "futurists" have promised to "stand up" to Europe, following the path set by Greece, of which they already know the result: lines in front of the ATMs and economic recession in just six months.
The worst thing is that the political blockade can extend for months or even sine die due to a hole in the Government investiture procedure established in our Constitution. Our Magna Carta establishes that there is a period of two months to appoint a Government from the holding of the first investiture debate or new elections will be called automatically. But there is no deadline to propose a candidate, and from the new rounds of consultations other candidates may emerge who do not make it to the investiture, because the appointee finally resigns. If no candidate appears before Congress, the situation is blocked, since the acting President of the Government, in accordance with the Government Law, cannot dissolve the Chambers. Thus, we are witnessing the unforeseen circumstance that no one wants to present their candidacy because no one has \"yet\" sufficient support. Support that no one has seriously bothered to look for either, by the way.
But not only can the investiture process be delayed indefinitely if no candidate accepts the King's proposal, but between the time the King entrusts the investiture to a candidate and the first plenary session that begins the countdown is held, there is no established maximum deadline. The President of Congress has the power to grant the candidate the period he deems appropriate to obtain the necessary support, be it a week, a month or a year.
And this is where we should conclude that our investiture procedure does not work and propose changes so that in the future we do not suffer a power vacuum like the one we are dealing with again. It is not that we should go to the extreme of the papal conclaves of the late 13th century where the cardinals were locked up on bread and water in the episcopal palace until they reached an agreement, but, without reaching such drastic measures, we could modify the investiture procedure to use formulas of “negative parliamentarism” such as those implemented in several northern European countries. In Denmark, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, the Prime Minister takes office without the express consent of Parliament. There is a presumption that the executive enjoys parliamentary confidence as long as the Chambers do not approve a motion of censure or another proposal that implies distrust in the governing team. The procedure to decide who governs while that trust is presumed varies from one to another, from the direct designation by the Head of State to that of the President of Parliament, but, in the Spanish case, the experience of some of our Autonomous Communities could be applied, such as that of the Basque Country, Asturias or the Valencian Community, in which the election of the President is carried out in a similar way to that of the President of the Congress. That is, the candidates who aspire to the position are presented and the one who obtains the most votes is elected. This procedure could be carried out in a double round, in such a way that, if no candidate obtains an absolute majority of the votes in the first round, only the two candidates with the most votes would face each other in the second round. It would be an election procedure and not an investiture procedure, through which the candidate who had the most parliamentary support in relation to the others would be chosen. With such a preference it would be presumed that the elected person enjoys the confidence of the Chamber, even if he or she has obtained a minority of votes of the total number of deputies, since the important thing would be to have obtained one more vote than the next most voted candidate. If only one candidate presents himself, he would be automatically elected. The election of the President of the Government could be held on a fixed date 30 days after the elections, and with this system in Spain we would have a Government with full powers and a fully active Parliament as of January 19, instead of waiting ad eternum for it.
This change in procedure would require a reform of article 99 of the Constitution, but it only requires a three-fifths majority of each of the Chambers for its approval, so it would not be difficult to agree on, especially since it would be the indolent attitude of those who would have to approve it that would have made it necessary. Of course, for that, we would first have to get out of the current blockade situation.
