Cortes Generales

General Courts Cortes Generales Co-official languages Basque: Gorte Nagusiak Catalan: Corts Generals Galician: Cortes Xerais Occitan: Corts Generaus
15th Cortes Generales
Type
Type	Bicameral
Houses	Senate Congress of Deputies
Leadership
President of the Senate	Pedro Manuel Rollán Ojeda (PP) since 17 August 2023
President (speaker) of the Congress of Deputies	Francesca Lluc Armengol Socias (PSOE) since 17 August 2023
Structure
Seats	615 265 senators 350 deputies
Senate political groups	Government (91)   PSOE (88)   Confederal Left group (2)[a]   Basque group (1)[b] Supported by (20)   Republican group (11)[c]   Basque group (5)[d]   Confederal Left group (4)[e] Opposition (153)   PP (143)   Plural group (6)[f]   Mixed group (4)[g]
Congress of Deputies political groups	Government (147)   PSOE (120)   Sumar (27)[h] Supported by (25)   ERC (7)   EH Bildu (6)   EAJ/PNV (5)   Podemos (4)   CCa (1)   BNG (1)   Independent (1)[i] Opposition (178)   PP (137)   Vox (33)   Junts (7)   UPN (1)
Elections
First Senate election	15 June 1977
First Congress of Deputies election	January–September 1810
Last Senate election	23 July 2023
Last Congress of Deputies election	23 July 2023
Meeting place
Senate Palacio del Senado Plaza de la Marina Española Centro, Madrid
Congress of Deputies Palacio de las Cortes Carrera de San Jerónimo Centro, Madrid
Website
cortesgenerales.es

The Cortes Generales (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈkoɾtes xeneˈɾales]; English: Spanish Parliament, lit. 'General Courts') are the bicameral legislative chambers of Spain, consisting of the Congress of Deputies (the lower house) and the Senate (the upper house).

The Congress of Deputies meets in the Palacio de las Cortes. The Senate meets in the Palacio del Senado. Both are in Madrid. The Cortes are elected through universal, free, equal, direct and secret suffrage,^[1] with the exception of some senatorial seats, which are elected indirectly by the legislatures of the autonomous communities. The Cortes Generales are composed of 615 members: 350 Deputies and 265 Senators.

The members of the Cortes Generales serve four-year terms, and they are representatives of the Spanish people.^[2] In both chambers, the seats are divided by constituencies that correspond with the fifty provinces of Spain, plus Ceuta and Melilla. However, each island or group of islands within the Canary and Balearic archipelagos forms a different constituency in the Senate.^[3]

As a parliamentary system, the Cortes confirm and dismiss the Prime Minister of Spain and their government; specifically, the candidate for Prime Minister has to be invested by the Congress with a majority of affirmative votes. The Congress can also dismiss the Prime Minister through a vote of no confidence. The Cortes also hold the power to enact a constitutional reform.

The modern Cortes Generales were created by the 1978 Constitution of Spain, but the institution has a long history.

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