elections: the monarchy is hereditary; following legislative elections, the leader of the majority party or the leader of the majority coalition is usually proposed president by the monarch and elected by the National Assembly; election last held on 9 and 11 April 2008 (next to be held in March 2012); vice presidents appointed by the monarch on the proposal of the president
election results: Jose Luis Rodriguez ZAPATERO reelected President of the Government; percent of National Assembly vote - 46.94%
Legislative branch:
bicameral; General Courts or Las Cortes Generales (National Assembly) consists of the Senate or Senado (264 seats as of 2008; 208 members directly elected by popular vote and the other 56 - as of 2008 - appointed by the regional legislatures; to serve four-year terms) and the Congress of Deputies or Congreso de los Diputados (350 seats; each of the 50 electoral provinces fills a minimum of two seats and the North African enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla fill one seat each with members serving a four-year term; the other 248 members are determined by proportional representation based on popular vote on block lists who serve four-year terms)
elections: Senate - last held on 9 March 2008 (next to be held not later than March 2012); Congress of Deputies - last held on 9 March 2008 (next to be held not later than March 2012)
election results: Senate - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - PP 101, PSOE 88, Entesa Catalona de Progress 12, CiU 4, PNV 2, CC 1, members appointed by regional legislatures 56; Congress of Deputies - percent of vote by party - PSOE 43.6%, PP 40.1%, CiU 3.1%, PNV 1.2%, ERC 1.2%, other 10.8%; seats by party - PSOE 169, PP 154, CiU 10, PNV 6, ERC 3, other 8
Judicial branch:
Supreme Court or Tribunal Supremo
Political parties and leaders:
Aragonese Party or CHA [Bizen FUSTER]; Basque Nationalist Party or
PNV or EAJ [Inigo URKULLU]; Basque Solidarity or EA [Begona
ERRAZTI]; Canarian Coalition or CC [Jose Torres STINGA] (a coalition
of five parties); Convergence and Union or CiU [Artur MAS i Gavarro]
(a coalition of the Democratic Convergence of Catalonia or CDC
[Artur MAS i Gavarro] and the Democratic Union of Catalonia or UDC
[Josep Antoni DURAN i LLEIDA]); Entesa Catalonia de Progress (a
Senate coalition grouping four Catalan parties - PSC, ERC, ICV,
EUA); Galician Nationalist Bloc or BNG [Anxo Manuel QUINTANA
Gonzalez]; Initiative for Catalonia Greens or ICV [Joan SAURA i
Laporta]; Navarra yes or Na Bai [Uxue BARKOS Berruezo] (a coalition
of four Navarran parties); Popular Party or PP [Mariano RAJOY Brey];
Republican Left of Catalonia or ERC [Joan RIDAO]; Spanish Socialist
Workers Party or PSOE [Jose Luis Rodriguez ZAPATERO]; United Left or
IU [Cayo LARA] (a coalition of parties including the Communist Party
of Spain or PCE and other small parties)