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The electoral agreement between PP and Vox for the Senate elections is not in any parliamentary phase: it is a pact between parties to coordinate candidacies, not an initiative that the Congress or the Senate must approve. As of October 27, 2026, the understanding is closed and its application corresponds to the electoral process, through the candidacies for the November 29 elections.

What has been finalized and at what stage it is

The most recent information places the agreement after the political negotiation: the lists are already configured and the parties have moved on to preparing the campaign. Therefore, it is not pending a committee debate, amendments, or a parliamentary vote. The Demócrata news from October 27 explicitly describes the pact as closed and the lists as configured (Demócrata, October 27).

The distinction is important: that the agreement refers to the Senate — or that it has been presented as an agreement "in the Senate" — does not make it a Chamber file. Its purpose is to decide how both organizations run in the elections, not to modify a law or approve a parliamentary resolution.

How the pact is materialized

No formal electoral coalition has been formed: both parties maintain their acronyms and coordinate candidacies through three territorial formulas. The agreement affects 23 provincial areas, according to the breakdown published by Demócrata (Pact map).

• Vox does not present its own candidacy in Las Palmas, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Cádiz, Valencia, Castellón, and Balearic Islands. In those PP candidacies, independent candidates proposed by Vox are incorporated (Independent candidates).
• PP does not run for the Senate in Gipuzkoa, Girona, and Tarragona, where Vox does (Agreement of October 26).
• Vox presents a single candidate in Sevilla, Huelva, Asturias, Badajoz, Álava, Navarra, Cáceres, Huesca, Zaragoza, Alicante, Granada, Cuenca, Pontevedra, and Jaén. This formula allows those who wish to combine their support with PP candidates, without the pact obliging voters to do so (Territorial distribution).

What procedures come next

The relevant steps are electoral, not parliamentary: submission of candidacies, verification by electoral boards, publication, possible corrections or challenges, and proclamation of candidacies. Afterwards, the November 29 vote will take place. The information consulted allows us to affirm that the agreement is closed, but not to attribute an official proclamation already completed to all its candidacies.

The deadline for submitting lists ended on October 26, precisely the day the understanding was announced as closed. Therefore, it is advisable to differentiate the political agreement from the subsequent acts of the electoral administration: the former does not replace the verification and proclamation of each candidacy (Deadline closure).

When it will have parliamentary consequences

Parliamentary consequences will come after the elections, with the elected senators and the organization of the new Chamber. The pact does not guarantee seats by itself, a specific majority, or a parliamentary group for Vox; nor does it equate to an automatic transfer of senators (Scope of the understanding).

In summary: there is no pending parliamentary approval. The pact is politically closed and is in its electoral execution; its effects on the composition of the Senate will depend on the election results.

Irene Montero Gil is a Podemos leader, former Congress deputy, former Minister of Equality, and Member of the European Parliament since July 2024. Her trajectory combines parliamentary leadership, management of equality policies, and European representation. To understand her competencies, it is useful to distinguish the executive responsibilities she had as minister from the parliamentary functions she currently performs.

Education and early political steps

Born in Madrid on February 13, 1988, she holds a degree in Psychology and a master's degree in Educational Psychology from the Autonomous University of Madrid. Before joining Podemos, she participated in the Communist Youth and in movements for housing rights, especially the Platform of Mortgage Victims.

She joined Podemos in 2014 and became part of its State Citizen Council in November of that year. She was also chief of staff to Pablo Iglesias before assuming parliamentary responsibilities. Her European institutional curriculum records the main milestones of this trajectory.

Stage as deputy and spokesperson

Chosen for Madrid in the December 2015 general elections, she served as a deputy between January 13, 2016, and August 17, 2023, during the XI, XII, XIII, and XIV legislatures. From 2017 until January 2020, she was the parliamentary spokesperson of her group, first under the name Unidos Podemos and later Unidas Podemos.

Her main responsibility was to represent the group in debates, defend its positions, and coordinate its parliamentary activity. She participated in the Board of Spokespersons and gained special visibility during the motion of no confidence against Mariano Rajoy in 2017. These functions involved representation, legislative initiative, and political control, distinct from directing a ministry.

Minister of Equality: competencies and management

She was Minister of Equality from January 13, 2020, to November 21, 2023, in the coalition government of PSOE and Unidas Podemos. Her department's main responsibilities were:

• Proposing and executing policies of equality between women and men.
• Preventing and combating violence against women.
• Promoting equal treatment and combating discrimination, including areas of sexual orientation and gender identity.
• Driving regulations, plans, and programs, and coordinating actions with other ministries, autonomous communities, and local entities.

These tasks were carried out through bodies such as the State Secretariat for Equality and against Gender Violence, the Government Delegation against Gender Violence, and the Women's Institute.

During her tenure, she promoted legislation on sexual freedom, reform of sexual and reproductive rights, and the law on the rights of trans and LGBTI people. The latter was approved in 2023, as recalled by Demócrata. The initial application of the "only yes is yes" law allowed sentence reductions for sexual offenses and generated a legal and political controversy that marked her management.

European responsibilities and current situation

Since July 16, 2024, she represents Podemos in the European Parliament, integrated into the Left group. Her responsibilities include:

• Vice President of the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality since July 2024.
• Member of the Special Committee on the Housing Crisis and of the EU-Chile parliamentary delegation.
• Substitute in Foreign Affairs and in the delegations for Palestine and the Euro-Latin American Assembly.

Her official European profile details these positions. She also maintains the Political Secretariat of Podemos and was endorsed in October 2026 to lead its candidacy for Madrid, according to Demócrata. As a former minister, she no longer directs the Ministry of Equality: her current institutional responsibility is parliamentary.

The last general elections held in Spain were on July 23, 2023. In the election for the Congress of Deputies, the Popular Party obtained 137 seats and the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party obtained 121. The PP finished in first position and the PSOE in second, with a difference of 16 deputies.

Popular Party result

The Popular Party obtained 137 of the 350 seats in the Congress. Its national vote percentage was approximately 33.1%, that is, about one in three valid votes. With that result, it was the candidacy with the greatest parliamentary representation in those elections. The comparison published by Demócrata on 23J records the 137 deputies obtained by the PP.

Those 137 deputies represented 39.14% of the seats in the Chamber. This proportion should not be confused with its vote percentage: one figure measures the representatives obtained and the other, the electoral support. The result left the PP below the 176 deputies that constitute an absolute majority in the Congress.

Socialist Party result

The PSOE obtained 121 seats, 7,821,718 votes, and 31.68% of the valid votes in the definitive result. This total includes the PSC and associated candidacies integrated into the socialist count. This is detailed in the review by Demócrata on their electoral results, which distinguishes the definitive data from the provisional ones released during election night.

The 121 socialist deputies represented 34.57% of the Congress. The party came in second and also did not reach an absolute majority on its own. Compared to the previous general elections, held in November 2019, it went from 120 to 121 deputies and added 1,029,519 additional votes (compared results).

How both results compare

• In deputies: the PP outnumbered the PSOE by 16 seats, with 137 versus 121.
• In vote percentage: the gap was approximately 1.4 percentage points, taking the rounded 33.1% of the PP and the definitive 31.68% of the PSOE.
• Regarding the absolute majority: the PP was 39 deputies short of reaching 176; the PSOE, 55.
• In joint representation: both gathered 258 of the 350 seats, equivalent to 73.71% of the Congress.

The difference between vote percentage and seat percentage is because deputies are distributed by constituencies, not through a direct conversion of the national total. Therefore, the parliamentary weight of each candidacy does not exactly match its vote proportion. The territorial distribution of support and the results of other candidacies influence the allocation, as explained in the cited analysis by Demócrata on the results.

In short, the answer refers to the Congress of Deputies: PP, 137 seats; PSOE, 121. It is advisable to separate these results from subsequent polls: a vote estimate does not change the result of an election already held. It is also advisable to always compare figures from the same count, especially when using provisional data from election night and definitive results.