Sánchez studies to advance general elections this Monday and recover the housing decree without depending on Junts

After the dissolution of the Cortes Generales, the Government can continue approving royal decree-laws (for example, a new housing decree) in cases of extraordinary and urgent necessity, but parliamentary control changes format. The “pending” steps are not so much for the decree to exist (that depends on the Council of Ministers) as for it to acquire legal stability through its ratification and, if applicable, processing as a bill.

1. Approval of the royal decree-law by the Government

Even with the Cortes dissolved, the Government — even in caretaker status — can issue a royal decree-law when the circumstances of article 86 of the Constitution concur:

• Existence of extraordinary and urgent necessity, which must be justified in the preamble.
• Respect for material limits: it cannot affect the order of the basic institutions of the State, the rights, duties and freedoms regulated in Title I of the Constitution, the regime of the Autonomous Communities, nor the general electoral law.

With the simple approval by the Council of Ministers and its publication in the BOE, the housing decree comes into immediate effect, but with a provisional character.

2. Parliamentary control during dissolution: Permanent Deputation

While the Congress is dissolved, its control functions over decree-laws are exercised by the Permanent Deputation of the Congress of Deputies, in accordance with article 78 of the Constitution and the Chambers’ Regulations.

The pending steps in this phase are:

• Submission of the royal decree-law to the Permanent Deputation: the Government must formally report the approved text.
• Convocation of a session of the Permanent Deputation: its President calls the specific debate on ratification or repeal of the housing decree.
• Ratification debate: a political debate similar to an abbreviated Plenary is held. A Government member defends the decree-law and the group spokespeople intervene for or against it.
• Vote: the Permanent Deputation decides whether to ratify or repeal the decree-law by simple majority of its members present.

If the Permanent Deputation does not ratify the decree, it becomes void, although the consolidated legal situations (what has already been executed in good faith while it was in force) are maintained.

3. After the constitution of the new Congress

Once the elections have been held and the new Congress constituted, there are other pending steps related to that housing decree already ratified (if it had been) by the Permanent Deputation:

• Reporting to the Plenary of the Congress: the Board and the Plenary take note of the decree-laws issued during the dissolution and the decisions of the Permanent Deputation.
• Possible decision to process it as a bill: the new Plenary of the Congress may agree that the ratified royal decree-law be processed as a bill by the urgent procedure, which would open the door to introducing amendments.

4. Processing as a bill (if it is decided to open it)

If the Congress agrees that the housing decree be processed as a bill, an abbreviated parliamentary procedure begins but with the essential phases:

• Presentation and debate of total amendments (if any), in the Plenary.
• Work in committee: a working group drafts an articulated text; then, the committee approves a report incorporating or rejecting partial amendments.
• Debate and vote in the Plenary of the Congress on the report and the maintained amendments.
• Submission to the Senate, which may approve, amend or veto the text.
• Possible return to the Congress so that it lifts a veto or ratifies/modifies the Senate’s amendments.

The final approval of the bill consolidates and, if applicable, modifies the content of the housing decree, which ceases to be a provisional norm to be integrated as an ordinary law in the legal system.

5. Key idea

In summary, after the dissolution of the Cortes the Government can indeed approve a new royal decree-law on housing, but its lasting validity depends on pending parliamentary steps: first, the control and ratification vote by the Permanent Deputation; then, once the new Congress is constituted, the possible processing as a bill with all the abbreviated legislative phases.

The Spanish Constitution regulates the Permanent Deputation of the Congress in article 78, where it attributes a series of very specific powers. It is a body that guarantees the functional continuity of the Lower House when the Plenary cannot meet (due to parliamentary recesses, between sessions, or when the Congress is dissolved or its mandate has expired). Its powers derive directly from the Constitution itself, although they are later developed and specified in the Congress Regulations.

1. Custody of the Congress’s powers outside ordinary periods

According to article 78.2 of the Constitution, the Permanent Deputation has the general mission to “watch over the powers of the Chamber” when it is not meeting in an ordinary session period. This means that:

• It acts as a guarantor of the institutional continuity of the Congress during periods when the Plenary does not hold ordinary activity.
• It can adopt the necessary decisions so that the Congress is not left “powerless” at those times, within the margins set by the Constitution and the Regulations.
• It can, if applicable, promote the extraordinary convocation of the Plenary when circumstances require it, triggering the reactivation of the Chamber.

This custodial function is generic but highly relevant: it ensures that there are no gaps in parliamentary authority in the ordinary functioning of the constitutional system.

2. Exercise of functions in case of dissolution of the Chamber or expiration of the mandate

The Constitution also foresees the situation in which the Congress is dissolved (by an early dissolution decision) or its mandate has expired and the new Chamber has not yet been constituted. In these cases, article 78 expressly attributes powers to the Permanent Deputation:

• The Permanent Deputation assumes the powers that would correspond to the Congress while it does not formally exist (due to being dissolved or in the interim between mandates).
• It becomes the only operational parliamentary body of the Lower House, with the capacity to act when the intervention of the Congress is required during that interim period.

Once the new Congress is constituted after the elections, the Permanent Deputation must report to the Chamber on the decisions and actions taken during that interval, thus rendering a form of political responsibility before the renewed Plenary.

3. Specific powers related to states of crisis (article 116 CE)

The Constitution expressly connects the powers of the Permanent Deputation with the regime of states of alarm, exception, and siege regulated in article 116. In this area, the Permanent Deputation has a key role if the Congress is dissolved or its mandate has expired:

• When the Congress must intervene in the authorization, control, or extension of a state of exception or siege, and it is dissolved, the parliamentary function is assumed by the Permanent Deputation.
• The same applies to certain control actions that the Constitution attributes to the Congress during the validity of these states of crisis: if the Chamber is not formally constituted, the Permanent Deputation acts in its place.

In this way, it is guaranteed that even in situations of constitutional exception — where parliamentary control is especially necessary — there is a representative body that can exercise those powers.

4. Powers related to Royal Decree-laws (article 86 CE)

Although article 86 of the Constitution primarily refers to the Congress in Plenary, the connection with the Permanent Deputation occurs again when the Chamber is dissolved or its mandate has expired. In those cases:

• If the Government approves a Royal Decree-law during the dissolution of the Congress, the parliamentary control required by the Constitution must be channeled through the Permanent Deputation.
• It is the responsibility of the Permanent Deputation to ensure that the Congress is convened once constituted to ratify or repeal that Decree-law, and to adopt the necessary decisions in the meantime.

In summary, according to the Spanish Constitution the Permanent Deputation of the Congress is the continuity body of the Lower House: it guards its powers when there is no ordinary session period, exercises its functions in cases of dissolution or expiration of the mandate, and assumes critical powers regarding states of crisis and control of Decree-laws when the Congress cannot meet in Plenary.

Pedro Sánchez Pérez-Castejón is a Spanish economist and politician who, according to our database, which collects official records, is the Secretary General of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) and President of the Government of Spain since June 2018. He currently belongs to the PSOE, a party he has been a member of since the 1990s and of which he has been the main figure for more than a decade.

Organically, Sánchez joined the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party in 1993. Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, he held various internal positions until making the leap to representative offices. Between 2004 and 2009 he developed his first relevant institutional stage as a councilor in the Madrid City Council, which gave him projection in the capital and within the socialist organization.

His national projection was consolidated when he moved to the Congress of Deputies. From 2009 he has been a deputy for Madrid in several legislatures, combining parliamentary work with internal functions in the PSOE. This dual aspect – organic and institutional – has been a constant in his later career.

The big leap came in 2014, when he was elected Secretary General of the PSOE through primaries among the membership. From that moment he also became leader of the opposition against the Popular Party Government and the socialist candidate for the Presidency of the Government in the 2015 and 2016 general elections. That first stage leading the party ended in 2016, amid an internal crisis, but Sánchez retained strong militant support.

In 2017 he made an unusual comeback in Spanish politics: he competed again in primaries and recovered the Secretary Generalship of the PSOE, which he has held since then. The PSOE itself has reviewed these years highlighting that, under his leadership, the party has returned to the central Government and has sustained coalition executives in a very fragmented parliamentary context.

His trajectory took a decisive turn in 2018. After presenting a motion of no confidence against then-president Mariano Rajoy, the motion succeeded in Congress and Sánchez was invested President of the Government of Spain on June 2, 2018. The appointment was formalized in Royal Decree 828/2023, of November 16, by which he was appointed President of the Government, published in the Official State Gazette, available in the index of the BOE of November 17, 2023.

Since then he has chained several legislatures at the head of the Executive. After the legislature started in 2018, he was again invested president in 2020 within the framework of a coalition Government led by the PSOE. Subsequently, he renewed the Presidency after new general elections, maintaining the PSOE as the central force of the parliamentary majority. Official biographical records highlight that during this period he has managed major crises, such as the COVID‑19 pandemic, episodes of high inflation, and successive adjustments of the European economic governance framework.

Institutionally, the record of offices shows that Sánchez has been President of the Government Presidency since June 2, 2018, with the position in force and no end date, and that his parliamentary reference is the Socialist Parliamentary Group in Congress. No other recent parliamentary offices are recorded apart from his status as president and leader of the socialist group.

Regarding his current relationship with the party, consolidated information confirms that his current political affiliation is with the PSOE (group identified as PSOE in the consulted records) and that he acts as Secretary General of the party, a position he has renewed internally in various federal congresses. In practice, this simultaneously makes him head of the Executive and the top leader of the socialist organization.

In summary: Pedro Sánchez's political career runs from socialist membership and the Madrid municipal sphere, through several stages as a national deputy, to his consolidation as Secretary General of the PSOE and, since 2018, as President of the Government. To this day, he continues to belong to the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party, which he leads and in whose name he governs Spain.