Parliament of Cantabria
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The Parliament of Cantabria, is the
unicameral Unicameralism (from ''uni''- "one" + Latin ''camera'' "chamber") is a type of legislature, which consists of one house or assembly, that legislates and votes as one. Unicameral legislatures exist when there is no widely perceived need for multi ...
legislature of the Autonomous Community of
Cantabria Cantabria (, also , , Cantabrian: ) is an autonomous community in northern Spain with Santander as its capital city. It is called a ''comunidad histórica'', a historic community, in its current Statute of Autonomy. It is bordered on the east ...
. It consists of 35 members called "deputies" which are freely elected by the citizens of the region. The Parliament convenes at the Saint Raphael Hospital, an 18th century building in the City of Santander rehabilitated in the 1980s to house the Regional Assembly. Prior to 1998, the Parliament was called Regional Assembly of Cantabria. The
Regionalist Party of Cantabria The Regionalist Party of Cantabria ( es, Partido Regionalista de Cantabria, PRC) is the second oldest political party in the Spanish Autonomous Community of Cantabria. The PRC originated in the Association in Defense of the Interests of Cantabr ...
is the largest party in parliament, with 14 of the 35 deputies, followed by the People's Party with 9 and the
Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of t ...
with 7. Other minor parties are Citizens with 3 deputies and Vox with 2. The Regionalist Party governs currently the region in coalition with the Socialist Party.


Elections and voting

The number of seats in the Parliament of Cantabria is set to a fixed-number of 35. All Parliament members are elected to a four-year term in a single multi-member district, consisting of the Community's territory (the province of Cantabria), using the
D'Hondt method The D'Hondt method, also called the Jefferson method or the greatest divisors method, is a method for allocating seats in parliaments among federal states, or in party-list proportional representation systems. It belongs to the class of highest ...
and a
closed-list Closed list describes the variant of party-list systems where voters can effectively only vote for political parties as a whole; thus they have no influence on the party-supplied order in which party candidates are elected. If voters had some in ...
proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...
system. Voting is on the basis of
universal suffrage Universal suffrage (also called universal franchise, general suffrage, and common suffrage of the common man) gives the right to vote to all adult citizens, regardless of wealth, income, gender, social status, race, ethnicity, or political stan ...
in a secret ballot. Only lists polling above 5% of valid votes in all of the community (which include blank ballots—for none of the above) are entitled to enter the seat distribution. The first elections were held in
1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning ...
when the People's Coalition won a majority of seats and José Antonio Rodríguez became the first regional president. In the most recent elections, held on 26 May 2019 the
Regionalist Party of Cantabria The Regionalist Party of Cantabria ( es, Partido Regionalista de Cantabria, PRC) is the second oldest political party in the Spanish Autonomous Community of Cantabria. The PRC originated in the Association in Defense of the Interests of Cantabr ...
won 40% of the seats, needing the
Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of t ...
to govern. The next elections are expected to be held in 2023.


Building

The building where the Parliament of Cantabria is placed is the old Hospital of Saint Raphael, in the High Street (old district) of
Santander, Spain Santander () is the capital of the autonomous community and historical region of Cantabria situated on the north coast of Spain. It is a port city located east of Gijón and west of Bilbao with a population of 172,000 (2017). It is believed t ...
. The hospital was built in 1791 as a charity hospital for poors and main hospital of Santander. It served during the Independence War and the disaster of the Cabo Machichaco. The hospital closed down in 1928, and in 1982, the regional assembly of Cantabria started the restoration project of the building, which ended in 1984 and won some awards.


Parliamentary bodies


Bureau

The Bureau of the Parliament of Cantabria is formed by the Speaker of the Parliament, two Deputy Speakers and two Secretaries.


Board of Spokespersons The Board of Spokespersons is a parliamentary body of the Cortes Generales mainly entrusted with the task of ordering the agenda of the Parliament. As a bicameral legislature, the Cortes Generales are formed by two houses, the Senate and the Congre ...

The Board of Spokespersons is a parliamentary body consisting of the spokespersons of the parliamentary groups. Its main task is to decide the agenda.


Committees

The Committees are formed by a group of deputies appointed by their respective Parliamentary Groups. Within them, legislative initiatives are known and discussed before they are debated in Parliament's Plenary. There are different types of Committees. They are called Standing Committees to those that are expressly established in the Standing Rules of the Parliament. The Non-Standing Committees are created to discuss a specific issue or matter during a legislature. Each Committee elects a Bureau consisting of a Chair, a Deputy Chair and a Secretary. , there are 12 standing committees. There are no non-standing committees.


Transparency

The Parliament of Cantabria is one of the most transparent regional parliaments in Spain (98,8%). All the students of Cantabria go to the Parliament at least once on a school trip, where they meet some deputies and usually the President of the Parliament. They are told about the history of the building, how the Parliament works and how they can participate in democracy. Sessions are retransmitted by the regional television broadcaster Tele Bahía.


See also

* List of presidents of the Parliament of Cantabria


References

{{Coord, 43, 27, 35, N, 3, 48, 49, W, region:ES_source:kolossus-eswiki, display=title 1982 establishments in Cantabria
Cantabria Cantabria (, also , , Cantabrian: ) is an autonomous community in northern Spain with Santander as its capital city. It is called a ''comunidad histórica'', a historic community, in its current Statute of Autonomy. It is bordered on the east ...