In addition to Congress, there is trouble in the Senate with the creation of parliamentary groups for this new legislature. The PP has stopped the approval of the Junts, PNV and Sumar groups on Tuesday to request a report from the legal services of the Upper House to find out if it can consider them valid. The reason is that in order to meet the condition of reaching 10 senators, the three parties need the PSOE to lend them half of their members, or even more.
This postponement has been consummated in a meeting of the Senate Table, where the PP has an absolute majority. It is a substantial difference with what happens in Congress, where it is the PSOE and Sumar who have more members than the popular ones. Hence, in the Upper House the loan of senators to please Junts has met with the reluctance of the PP.
The first vice president of the Senate, Javier Maroto (PP), has announced the Board’s decision to require a report from the lawyers, while also communicating that the PP, PSOE and ERC-Bildu groups have been approved without any objection.
In statements collected by Europa Press, Maroto called attention to the fact that Junts and Sumar needed more PSOE senators than their own in order to reach the threshold of 10 members required by the Senate regulations to be configured as a parliamentary group. Something that, according to what he has expressed, causes “serious doubts” about whether it has lace. Thus, he has justified that the way to clarify the situation is to demand that report and has promised that the PP will accept “exactly” what the legal services of the Senate say.
The Senate Regulations require adding a minimum of 10 components to form a parliamentary group, a number that can be reduced during the course of the legislature but can never be less than six.
Because it is important? Because it means receiving more money and having more advisors, having representation in all the Senate bodies, guarantees more time to intervene in debates and allows for greater parliamentary initiative. The Mixed Group forces all of this to be broken up with more parties and, therefore, to have a smaller piece of the pie.
The situation of PNV, Junts and Sumar is different. The one who has it best is the Basque Nationalist Party, which has five senators. To reach 10, it requires the transfer of another five from the PSOE. Half. Of course, for one of the socialists he has to stay to maintain the minimum of six and prevent the group from dissolving.
Junts has it more complicated, since it has three senators. Canarian Coalition, as in the last legislature, would join Puigdemont’s party. That leaves the sum at four and forces the PSOE to lend up to six senators. It is more than half. And then to keep two socialist parliamentarians embedded in the group.
The same happens with Sumar or, as it is intended to be called, the Confederal Left. Compromís, Más Madrid and Asociación Socialista Gomera (ASG) summon three senators. Plus a quarter provided by the PSOE-Sumar coalition in Ibiza/Formentera. It happens as with Junts, that another six would be needed. It is true that there is an option for Geroa Bai to be added to that group when Uxue Barkos is appointed senator by designation of the Parliament of Navarra. Thus, depending on the moment, five or six senators are needed. Having to leave then permanently one or two.
