Understanding the Spanish Parliamentary Monarchy

Posted on Apr 3, 2025 in International Relations

Lesson 12: The Crown

I. General Ideas on Parliamentary Monarchy

1. Concept

Article 1.3 of the Spanish Constitution (EC) states that the political form of the Spanish State is a parliamentary monarchy. The monarchy is a form of head of state. In current parliamentary monarchies, Article 1 recognizes the monarchy as an institution of political unity and social institution within a parliamentary system.

Parliamentary monarchy is understood as the form of head of state characterized by the existence of a King as Head of State, embodying the monarchy, with the functions attributed to it belonging to the Government. This political form of constitutional monarchy is a system of relations between the King, the Government, and the Parliament, in which the king has a defined role.

2. Historical Evolution

Important moments:

  • Law of Succession to the Head of State, 1947: This law defined Spain as a kingdom and determined by the government as a monarchy. It established the mechanisms of the monarchy by giving the Head of State the power to propose to Parliament the person who would succeed the Head of State as King or Ruler.
  • State Law 1967: This law varied the Head of State role, played by Franco, and stipulated that the head of state would correspond to the King.
  • Appointment of Don Juan Carlos de Borbón as his successor as King to the Head of State in 1969: Proposed by Franco and accepted by the Courts as successor to the Head of State, being named Prince of Spain.
  • Proclamation of Don Juan Carlos as King of Spain in 1975: Upon the death of Franco, the prince became king.
  • Referendum Political Reform Act of 1976: This marked the beginning of indirect democratic legitimacy of the monarchy to accept the new composition of Spain, including the monarchy.
  • Resignation of Don Juan de Borbon to their historic rights in favor of his son in 1977: He moved from King to the Count of Barcelona, and his son, Prince Juan Carlos I, became King, opening up the constitutional process.
  • Election of June 15, 1977: The king’s speech on July 22 set the guidelines on the role of the monarchy: A Monarchy subject to the Constitution and separate from the role of government.

Constituent Phases:

a) Development in the Congress of Deputies: The monarchy was supported by UCD and AP. The PCE did not openly oppose it. The Socialists were declared Republican and introduced an amendment to Article 1.3 seeking a republic. In the end, they accepted the constitutional monarchy if the Spanish people approved it in the referendum.

b) Development in the Senate: The issues of incompatibility of the new parliamentary monarchy with the fundamental laws were addressed, approving an amendment to Article 57.1 establishing the monarchy as a restoration and eliminating the concept of ‘instauración’.

Franco’s referendum to approve the 1978 Constitution: The democratic legitimacy of the monarchy started with the adoption of the Political Reform Act and ended with the approval of this referendum, devoting Title II of the Constitution to the Crown.

3. General Characteristics

  • Streamlined Monarchy: Reduced legal standards and functions of the monarch in a parliamentary system as opposed to the British system. The Constitution gives the king freedom in the appointment and dismissal of civil and military members of the House.
  • Monarchy compatible with popular sovereignty: This broke with the previous Spanish monarchy. Sovereignty resides in the Spanish people (Article 1.2). The King is no longer sovereign and becomes the holder of a state agency governed by the laws and the Constitution.
  • Monarchy influenced by comparative law and Spanish historical law:
    • a) International comparative law:
      • Influence of the term “British Crown” and all powers of the King.
      • Dutch influence in their roles in international treaties.
      • Swedish influence in the social character of the monarchy and its involvement in the nomination of the Prime Minister.
    • b) Comparative Law Spanish:
      • Constitution of 1876 on the powers of the King and the regulation of the succession of the Crown and the Regency.
      • Constitution of 1931 in the separation of the Head of State and Government.
  • Monarchy legitimacy complex: Several grounds:
    • a) Legitimacy of native origin or derived from the Basic Laws.
    • b) Legitimacy in the democratic state as the legal legitimacy (based on the Constitution to accept the monarchy as head of state).