Valencia (EFE).- Why are Les Corts Valencianes, resulting from the elections, set up on this day? How do parliamentarians take office? Who will be the protagonists? The answers, in this guide to follow the constitutive session of the eleventh legislature of Les Corts:
Why June 26?
The date of the constitutive session of Les Corts is set by the president of the Generalitat in the decree calling the elections. On this occasion, Ximo Puig chose June 26 looking for symbolism: it is the day that marks the 60th anniversary of John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s speech near the Berlin Wall.
That speech, with the famous quote ‘I am also a Berliner’, constitutes in Puig’s opinion “a passionate defense of democracy, peace and tolerance”, some intangible but necessary principles in today’s society.
How is the constitutive session
Les Corts Valencianes of the eleventh legislature, resulting from the regional elections of May 28, are constituted from 10:30 am led by the Age Group, made up of the oldest deputy, Carlos Laguna (PSPV), 69 years old, as president, and the two youngest as secretaries: María José Calabuig (Compromís), 24, and José Muñoz Salvador (Vox), 29.
The president of the Age Group will declare the session open and one of the secretaries will read the electoral summons decree and the list of the 99 deputies elected -40 from Valencia, 35 from Alicante and 24 from Castellón-, after which they will all proceed to swear or promise the position, starting with the Age Table.
A historical formula
The Courts use for this a historical formula from the Regional Courts: “I swear/promise that, as long as I hold the position of deputy, I will abide by the Spanish Constitution and the Statute of Autonomy of the Valencian Community without deception and I will keep loyalty to the Generalitat”.
The rest of the parliamentarians are asked as a question, and when they are called in alphabetical order they get up and say “yes, I swear” or “yes, I promise”, although there are those who choose to add tags: Vox four years ago added “for God and for Spain” and other deputies alluded to LGTBI rights, the feminist struggle or “Mother Earth”.
Election of the Board of Les Corts
The next step is to elect the Mesa de Les Corts, made up of the presidency, two vice-presidencies and two secretariats, through three consecutive votes by which the deputies introduce ballots with names into a ballot box.
Thanks to the government pact reached between PP and Vox, the latter party will have the presidency; the popular ones the first vice-presidency and secretary; and the Socialists the vice-presidency and second secretary, in a Table that will be equal by law and in which one of the four groups of Les Corts will not be: Compromís.
Once the voting is over -the presidency needs an absolute majority in the first round and the rest simple-, the members of the Table will take their positions and the person who occupies the presidency will swear or promise their position, using the same formula used by parliamentarians, but specifying the new position, and will make a speech.
He will be the eleventh person to preside over Les Corts since 1983, after Antonio García Miralles (PSPV), Vicente González Lizondo (UV), Héctor Villalba (UV), Marcela Miró, Julio de España, Milagrosa Martínez, Juan Cotino and Alejandro Font de Mora, of the PP; Francesc Colomer (PSPV) and Enric Morera (Compromise).
The new Chamber
The new Corts are made up of four groups (two less than the last legislature, after the disappearance of Ciudadanos and Unides Podem), in which the majority is the PP, with 40 seats, which will govern in coalition with Vox (13 deputies), while the PSPV (31) and Compromís (15) pass to the opposition.
There are more women than men (52 to 47) and more new parliamentarians than repeaters (62 to 37) in a hemicycle in which the PP sits on the right side; PSPV and Compromís on the left; and Vox is distributed in the central part of the two sides.
Here you can find the main leaders of the PP and the PSPV, as well as ten mayors (nine from the PP and one from the PSPV), while in this constitutive session the acting Council will be on the blue benches in the first row , in which there are four components that do not have a seat (Héctor Illueca, Rosa Pérez, Rafa Climent and Raquel Tamarit).
The Guest Tribune
This solemn session of Les Corts -which will be escorted behind the Table by two maceros or maceras (four years ago there were two women)- usually has numerous witnesses in the guest rostrum, one of whom will be the president of Vox, Santiago Abascal .
After the session, the deadlines for the next investiture of the popular Carlos Mazón as president of the Generalitat will begin to count.