Prime Minister of Spain - Royal Nomination and Congressional Confirmation

Royal Nomination and Congressional Confirmation

Once a general election has been announced by the king, political parties nominate their candidates to stand for the presidency of the government. An outgoing president who is not running in that election remains in office as a caretaker until their successor is sworn in, such as José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero; this differs from other parliamentary governments whose prime ministers always lead their parties during the election campaign.

Following the general election of the Cortes Generales (Cortes), and other circumstances provided for in the constitution, the king meets with and interviews the political party leaders represented in the Congress of Deputies, and then consults with the Speaker of the Congress of Deputies (officially, Presidente de Congreso de los Diputados de España, who, in this instance, represents the whole of the Cortes Generales and was himself elected from within the Congress to be the Speaker) before nominating his candidate for the presidency, according to Section 99 of Title IV. Often minor parties form part of a larger major party, and through that membership it can be said that the king fulfills his constitutional mandate of consulting with party representatives with Congressional representation.

Title IV Government and Administration Section 99(1) & (2)

• (1) After each renewal of the Congress and the other cases provided for under the Constitution, the King shall, after consultation with the representatives appointed by the political groups with parliamentary representation, and through the Speaker of the Congress, nominate for the Presidency of the Government.
• (2) The candidate nominated in accordance with the provisions of the foregoing subsection shall submit to the Congress the political program of the Government he or she intends to form and shall seek the confidence of the House.

Artículo 99.

• 1. Después de cada renovación del Congreso de los Diputados, y en los demás supuestos constitucionales en que así proceda, el Rey, previa consulta con los representantes designados por los grupos políticos con representación parlamentaria, y a través del Presidente del Congreso, propondrá un candidato a la Presidencia del Gobierno.
• 2. El candidato propuesto conforme a lo previsto en el apartado anterior expondrá ante el Congreso de los Diputados el programa político del Gobierno que pretenda formar y solicitará la confianza de la Cámara.

Constitutionally, the monarch may nominate anyone he sees fit as his prerogative. However, it remains pragmatic for monarch to nominate a candidate who is most likely to enjoy the confidence of the Congress of Deputies and form a government, usually the political leader whose party commands the most seats in the Congress. For the Crown to nominate the political leader whose party controls the Congress can be seen as a royal endorsement of the democratic process— a fundamental concept enshrined in the 1978 Constitution.

By political custom established by Juan Carlos I since the ratification of the 1978 Constitution, the king's nominees have all been from parties who maintain a plurality of seats in the Congress. However, there is no legal requirement for this. It has never happened in the national government, but the largest party could end up not ruling if rival parties gather into a majority, forming a coalition. This scenario is unlikely as political activity in Spain has effectively coalesced into a two-party system between the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party and the People's Party, with the two major parties adopting some aspects of the minor party platforms in an effort to attract them into a coalition to edge out their rival party.

The monarch is normally to able announce his nominee the day following a general election.

The monarch's order nominating a presidential candidate is countersigned by the Speaker of the Congress, who then presents the nominee before the Congress of Deputies in a process known as a Congressional Investiture (Investidura parlamentaria). During the Investiture proceedings the nominee presents his political agenda in an Investiture Speech to be debated and submitted for a Vote of Confidence (Cuestión de confianza) by the Congress, effecting an indirect election of the head of government. A simple majority confirms the nominee and his program. At the moment of the vote, the confidence is awarded if the candidate receives a majority of votes in the first poll (currently 176 out of 350 MPs), but if the confidence is not awarded, a second vote is scheduled two days later in which a simple majority of votes cast (i.e., more "yes" than "no" votes) is required.

After the nominee is confirmed, the Speaker of the Congress formally reports to the king of the congressional confirmation. The king then appoints the candidate as the new President of the Government. The king's order of appointment is countersigned by the Speaker. During the inauguration ceremony performed by the king, customarily at the Salón de Audiencias in the Zarzuela Palace, the president elect of the Government takes an oath of office over an open constitution and next to the Holy Bible. The oath as taken by President Zapatero on his first term in office on 17 April 2004 was:

In 2008, from the time the king nominated José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero for a second term as president immediately following the 2008 general election, almost a month passed before Zapatero was able to present his Investiture Speech before the Congress and stand for a Vote of Confidence. If no overall majority was obtained on the first Vote of the Confidence, then the same nominee and program is resubmitted for a second vote within forty-eight hours. Following the second vote, if confidence by the Congress is still unreached, then the monarch again meets with political leaders and the Speaker, and submits a new nominee for a vote of confidence. If, within two months, no candidate has won the confidence of the Congress then the King dissolves the Cortes and calls for a new general election. The King's royal decree is countersigned by the Speaker of the Congress.

Once appointed, the President of the Government forms his government whose ministers are appointed and removed by the King on the president's advice. In the political life of Spain, the king would already be familiar with the various political leaders in a professional capacity, and perhaps less formally in a more social capacity, facilitating their meeting following a general election. Conversely, nominating the party leader whose party maintains a plurality and who are already familiar with their party manifesto facilitates a smoother nomination process. In the event of coalitions, the political leaders would customarily have met beforehand to hammer out a coalition agreement before their meeting with the King.

Governments and the Cortes sit for a term no longer than four years when the president tenders his resignation to the king and advises the king to dissolve the Cortes, prompting a general election. It remains within the king's prerogative to dissolve the Cortes if, at the conclusion of the four years, the president has not asked for its dissolution, according to Title II Section 56. The king may call for earlier elections on the advice of the president, known as a snap election, but no sooner than a year after the prior general election. Additionally, if the Government loses the confidence of the Cortes, then it must resign.

In the event that a president dies or becomes incapacitated while in office, then the government as a whole resigns and the process of royal nomination and appointment takes place. The vice president would then take over the day to day operations in the meantime, even while the vice president himself may be nominated by the King and stand for a vote of confidence.