Who does not recognize the king does not count before the king
The pressures brought about by the general elections on July 23 still hide unexpected surprises. For example, this simplicity that we had not noticed: whoever does not recognize the king does not count before the king. And Felipe VI is, at this moment of constitution of the new Cortes Generales, the key figure of the Spanish institutional architecture because he is the head of State and, therefore, the only one who proposes which candidate should try to form a Government. If a parliamentary group does not recognize the figure of His Majesty the King, they simply do not count his intentions when calculating who is the candidate with the most support to be sworn in as Prime Minister. It is a tradition in Spain, in this parliamentary monarchy that accepts and protects even those who want to destroy it, that the spokesmen for the Basque and Catalan independence groups do not attend the round of contacts that the head of state initiates to comply with the Constitution.
A few days ago, for those who have forgotten, an old video of the spokespersons for the Basque, Catalan and Galician separatists began to circulate again on social networks, at the beginning of the last legislature (February 2020), in which They showed their direct rejection of the parliamentary monarchy. What they did was not attend the solemn opening session of the XIV legislature, to plant the King, and, instead, in one of the rooms of the Congress, they read a declaration that said, literally: “The king is not a valid interlocutor, nor does it have the legitimacy of our peoples, nor do we recognize any political role for it”.
Days before that declaration, in the round of consultations called by Felipe VI, they all did the same, did not attend the appointment and planted the King. The advantage, then, of Pedro Sánchez was that the votes of all of them were not decisive for the head of state to clearly interpret that the socialist candidate had more support to govern, because the pact with the United Podemos conglomerate was already being forged. , and, above all, because there was an enormous distance with the block of the center right. there was no doubt. On this occasion, however, the circumstances have changed because the two theoretical blocks are balanced in terms of the number of deputies, although with a decisive advantage in favor of Pedro Sánchez. But, if the independentista deputies do not tell the head of state that they are determined to vote for the socialist candidate in the investiture, what happens? In order not to remain in doubt, we have transferred this same question to a renowned professor of Constitutional Law, Agustín Ruiz Robledo, and I transcribe here the question and answer to transcend speculation and troubles, so frequent these days.
ASK. If the representatives of Bildu, Junts and Esquerra do not attend the round of contacts called by the King, and, therefore, do not convey their intention to vote, would Felipe VI have to accept what Pedro Sánchez tells him as good, in the sense that it has those votes, or not to consider it valid?
ANSWER. Therefore, if they do not attend, they are breaching their constitutional obligation. In that case, I would consider that they should not be taken into account, they neither add nor subtract.
The problem for the acting president, Pedro Sánchez, is that, if the head of state maintains this same criterion, the sum of his block would be very far from the block of the center-right. If before the King only the representatives of Sumar and the PNV accredit their support for Pedro Sánchez, in addition, obviously, to the socialist deputies, they would only add 157 votes in his favor. However, the center-right bloc, including the Popular Party and Vox deputies, amount to 170 seats. The absence in the sum of the 20 deputies of Bildu, Esquerra and Junts, would simply throw away all the options of Pedro Sánchez to go first to the investiture, instead of Alberto Núñez Feijóo, as the right-wing leader is claiming for to have been the winner of the elections.
In the event that the PP candidate fails, as it seems to happen, in the next round of contacts, after two months, we would find ourselves, again, under the same circumstances, that the Sánchez bloc does not reach the essential minimum because the representatives of the independentistas do not recognize the role of the king as head of state. No one can propose himself before the Courts. It cannot be interpreted there that it is the socialist candidate who communicates to the King what the independentistas plan to vote, due to the many previous meetings they have held, much less that the Head of State takes into account the statements to the media of those who do not they go to their appointment. Nor is it imaginable, in the current circumstances, that the candidate and acting president, Pedro Sánchez, would attend the round of contacts called by Felipe VI with a document signed before a notary public by all of them, indicating the direction of their vote..
This article 99 of the Constitution, as explained by Professor Ruiz Robledo, is part of the incomplete regulations, in the sense that it establishes a procedure to appoint the President of the Government after elections, and from there the constitutional obligations of all actors, even if they are not specified. As it is to go to the round of contacts called by the head of state to inform him of his intentions to vote in an investiture session. It's called constitutional loyalty. So, what has been said, whoever does not recognize the king does not count before the king.