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The President of the Government of Spain is the highest authority of the executive power and a central figure in the Spanish parliamentary system. His basic powers and functions are mainly regulated in articles 97, 98, 99, and 100 of the 1978 Spanish Constitution, as well as in other provisions that specify his role vis-à-vis the King, the Cortes Generales, and the Government itself.

Direction of domestic and foreign policy

According to article 97, the Government directs domestic and foreign policy, the civil and military administration, and the defense of the State. This direction function is exercised in a unified manner through the President of the Government, who:

• Sets the major guidelines of the political action of the Executive (legislative, economic, social, European policy priorities, etc.).
• Coordinates and arbitrates the actions of the different ministries to ensure a coherent government line.
• Politically represents Spain in relations with other States and international organizations, together with the King, who exercises the head of State role.

Direction of the Government and coordination of ministers

Article 98 establishes that the Government is composed of the president, vice presidents if any, ministers, and other members that may be established. Within this collegiate body, the president is responsible for:

• Directing the Government's action, that is, setting its objectives, pace, and priorities.
• Coordinating the work of the other Government members and resolving conflicts of competence between ministries.
• Convening, presiding over, and setting the agenda of the Council of Ministers meetings, where the most relevant executive decisions are made (bills, royal decree-laws, regulations, etc.).
• Promoting the approval of normative projects and strategic plans of the Executive.

Relationship with the King: appointments and dismissal

The Constitution assigns the Crown the formal function of appointing and dismissing the President of the Government, but always upon proposal or as a consequence of parliamentary decisions:

• After a round of consultations, the King proposes a candidate for investiture before the Congress of Deputies (art. 99). The choice depends on the Congress; once the required support is obtained (absolute majority in the first vote or simple majority in the second), the King formally appoints the president.
• The King appoints and dismisses the other Government members upon the president's proposal. In practice, the president decides the Government's structure and chooses or dismisses ministers, and the King formalizes these acts.
• The resignation or loss of confidence of the president (for example, after a successful motion of censure or a lost vote of confidence) implies the resignation of the entire Government.

Relationship with the Cortes: political responsibility

In a parliamentary system, the President of the Government is politically responsible before the Congress. Among his functions linked to the Cortes are:

• Undergoing the investiture debate and presenting his Government program at the start of the term.
• Raising a vote of confidence before the Congress to renew parliamentary support on a program or a general policy statement.
• Facing a possible motion of censure, which if successful results in his dismissal and the appointment of a new president.
• Appearing before the Chambers and answering their questions and interpellations through parliamentary control mechanisms.

Power to dissolve the Cortes and call elections

The Constitution grants the president a politically significant power: to propose to the King the dissolution of the Congress, the Senate, or the Cortes Generales and the calling of general elections. This power is subject to certain temporal and material limits (for example, it cannot be exercised while a motion of censure is in process), but it gives the president an important capacity to manage political timing.

Appointment and dismissal of senior officials

As head of the executive power, the President of the Government proposes to the King the appointment and dismissal of ministers. Additionally, he directs the general policy of appointments in the General State Administration and other bodies where the Government intervenes (although many appointments also require parliamentary or other institutional participation).

Representation and other functions

Finally, the President of the Government:

• Holds the highest representation of the Government vis-à-vis other State powers, autonomous communities, the European Union, and the international community.
• Signs, together with the competent ministers, the provisions and decisions adopted by the Government (royal decrees, royal decree-laws, royal legislative decrees, etc.).
• Exercises any other function expressly attributed by the Constitution and laws, as well as those delegated by the Cortes Generales or resulting from constitutional practice.

Santiago Abascal Conde (Bilbao, 1976) reached the presidency of Vox in 2014 after a long previous trajectory almost entirely linked to the Partido Popular (PP), first in the Basque Country and later in the Community of Madrid, combining organizational positions, institutional representation, and activism around the defense of Spain's unity.

Origins and political socialization

Abascal grew up in Amurrio and Llodio (Álava) in a family strongly politicized on the right. His father, Santiago Abascal Escuza, was a leader of Alianza Popular and later of the Álava PP, and his grandfather Manuel Abascal had been mayor of Amurrio. This environment placed him from a very young age in the orbit of Spanish center-right in the Basque Country, in a context marked by ETA violence and the confrontation between Basque nationalism and constitutionalism.

He pursued university studies at the University of Deusto. Biographies differ on the exact degree (Sociology or Psychology), but agree that his political involvement started early: he joined the PP around the mid-1990s, at about 18-20 years old, joining the party apparatus in Álava.

Membership and internal positions in the Basque PP

His first trajectory developed within the Basque PP:

• Provincial committees in Álava: in the mid-nineties he entered the Provincial Committee of the Álava PP and later its executive committee, placing him in the leadership core of the organization in the territory.
• Nuevas Generaciones: between approximately 2000 and 2005 he presided over Nuevas Generaciones of the Basque PP, the party's youth organization. From this position, he reinforced his profile as an emerging leader of the most combative wing against nationalism.
• PP leadership bodies: various sources indicate he was a member of the Basque PP leadership and executive commission and also part of the National Board, giving him a voice in the party's strategic debates at the national level.

Institutional career in Álava and the Basque Parliament

Alongside these internal positions, Abascal held several elected responsibilities in the Basque Country, all under the PP banner:

• Councilor in Llodio (1999-2007): in the 1999 municipal elections he was elected PP councilor in the Llodio City Council. He held the seat for two terms, until 2007. Some biographies mention Amurrio, but most references place his councilorship in Llodio.
• Procurator in the Álava General Assemblies (2003-2004): he served as a member of the Álava provincial chamber, strengthening his knowledge of Basque territorial politics and provincial institutions.
• Deputy in the Basque Parliament (2004-2009): he was elected regional parliamentarian for Álava in two periods, with a brief interruption between February and October 2005. In this stage, he positioned himself in opposition to Basque nationalism, with a discourse focused on criticizing the political network of the abertzale left, defending terrorism victims, and claiming the Spanish identity of the autonomous community.

During these years, he consolidated his image as a leader of the hardest sector of the Basque PP against nationalism, which would mark his later profile.

DENAES: from militant constitutionalism to ideological laboratory

In 2006 Abascal promoted the Foundation for the Defense of the Spanish Nation (DENAES), conceived as a civic instrument for defending Spain's unity and criticizing decentralization policies and the recognition of peripheral national identities. The foundation, created with the approval of then Madrid president Esperanza Aguirre, became a meeting space for intellectuals and activists of the national-conservative right.

DENAES practically functioned as a bridge between his stage in the PP and the later creation of Vox: it articulated a strongly marked Spanish nationalist discourse, generated networks of sympathizers, and provided Abascal with his own platform, partially outside the party structures.

Stage in the Community of Madrid: appointed positions

After leaving active Basque politics, and still within the PP environment, Abascal took on appointed positions in the Madrid administration during Esperanza Aguirre's governments:

• Director of the Data Protection Agency of the Community of Madrid (around 2010-2012), an autonomous body dedicated to overseeing privacy and compliance with personal data regulations.
• Director of the Foundation for Patronage and Social Sponsorship (2013), a public entity aimed at promoting collaboration between the private sector and social interest projects.

These positions reinforced his experience in institutional management and kept him within the orbit of the Madrid PP, despite his growing distance from the party's national leadership.

Break with the PP and prior step to Vox

At the end of 2013, Abascal formally left the PP, citing disagreements with the leadership's line on territorial policy, the response to nationalism, and the management of ETA's end. No significant membership in other parties is documented in that interval: his prior party trajectory is essentially that of the PP.

That same year, while his prominence in DENAES intensified, he participated in conversations that led to the creation of Vox, along with figures such as José Antonio Ortega Lara, José Luis González Quirós, and Alejo Vidal-Quadras. Vox was registered as a party in December 2013 and publicly presented in January 2014; Abascal was already part of the founding leadership and was elected national president in September 2014.

In sum, before presiding over Vox, Abascal had followed a path combining youth militancy, significant internal positions in the Basque PP, elected responsibilities at municipal, provincial, and regional levels, activism defending Spain's unity through DENAES, and managerial posts in the Madrid administration. This trajectory forms the political and ideological substrate from which he made the leap to lead the new far-right formation.

The last elections to the Assembly of Madrid were held on May 28, 2023, coinciding with the regional and municipal cycle. In those elections, the Partido Popular (PP), led by Isabel Díaz Ayuso, was clearly the most voted force and obtained 70 of the 135 seats in the Assembly of Madrid.

According to official data from the regional electoral process, the PP achieved 1,599,186 votes, which translated into those 70 deputies. The absolute majority in the Assembly of Madrid is set at 68 seats, so the result allowed the PP to govern alone with an absolute majority.

Seat distribution by party in 2023

The seat distribution among the main candidacies that surpassed the electoral threshold was as follows:

• Partido Popular (PP) – 1,599,186 votes and 70 seats in the Assembly of Madrid.
• Más Madrid – 615,171 votes and 27 seats.
• PSOE-M (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party – Madrid) – 609,718 votes and 27 seats.
• Vox – 247,735 votes and 11 seats.
• Podemos–IU–Alianza Verde – 164,609 votes and 0 seats (did not reach representation).

With these results, the Assembly of Madrid was composed of 135 deputies, distributed among four groups with representation (PP, Más Madrid, PSOE-M, and Vox), while the Podemos–IU–Alianza Verde candidacy fell below the threshold necessary to obtain seats.

PP's weight in the new Assembly

From the point of view of the balance of power, the key figure is that the PP reached 70 seats in a chamber where the absolute majority is set at 68 deputies. This gives the Populars:

• The capacity to invest the regional president without needing agreements with other parties.
• Sufficient control to approve budgets and main regional laws without depending on stable partners.
• A dominant position against a fragmented left block between Más Madrid and PSOE-M, which tied in seats (27 each).

Politically, the result consolidated the Community of Madrid as one of the main regional strongholds of the Partido Popular. The fact that the PP surpassed the absolute majority threshold placed Díaz Ayuso in a position of single-party government, without the need for coalition or investiture pacts with Vox.

Summary to your question

In summary, in the last elections to the Assembly of Madrid (May 28, 2023):

• The PP obtained 70 deputies and 1,599,186 votes.
• It was the most voted list and surpassed the absolute majority, set at 68 seats in a chamber of 135.
• The rest of the Assembly was completed with Más Madrid (27 seats), PSOE-M (27), and Vox (11), while Podemos–IU–Alianza Verde did not achieve representation.

Therefore, the direct answer to your question is that in the last Madrid regional elections the Partido Popular obtained 70 of the 135 deputies in the Assembly of Madrid.