What can Sánchez's Government do after calling elections and when does it take office

The investiture procedure for the Prime Minister in Spain after a general election is mainly regulated by the Constitution (arts. 99 and 101) and the Congress Rules of Procedure. It is a parliamentary mechanism in which confidence is granted exclusively by the Congress of Deputies, although the King plays a key role in initiating and formalizing the process.

1. Preliminary phase: constitution of the Cortes

• General elections: once the elections are held, the results are officially proclaimed and the 350 seats of the Congress and those of the Senate are assigned.
• Constitutive session of the Congress: on the date set in the royal decree of convocation:
  • Deputies swear or promise to uphold the Constitution.
  • The Board of the Congress (president, vice presidents, and secretaries) is elected through internal voting.
• Formation of parliamentary groups: in the following days, parties and coalitions register their groups, which will be decisive for investiture negotiations.

2. Role of the King: consultation round and candidate proposal

• Once the Congress is constituted, the King opens a round of consultations with representatives designated by the parliamentary groups present.
• The purpose of these consultations is to determine who is best positioned to obtain the confidence of the Congress (a sufficient majority of support or agreements).
• After the consultations, the King proposes a candidate for the Presidency of the Government and communicates this to the president of the Congress.
• There is no fixed deadline in days for this proposal, but it must be made reasonably promptly, considering the need to form a government.

3. Investiture debate in the Congress

Upon receiving the King's proposal, the president of the Congress convenes the investiture debate, which takes place in the Plenary.

• Initial intervention of the candidate:
  • The candidate presents their government program and the general lines of their political action without an essential time limit (although it is usually politically limited).
• Intervention of parliamentary groups:
  • Spokespersons of the groups intervene in order from largest to smallest representation.
  • There are replies and counter-replies between the candidate and the different groups.
• Closing of the debate and move to voting:
  • Once the round of interventions concludes, the president of the Congress announces the vote.

4. Voting and required majorities

Confidence is granted through one or more votes in the Plenary of the Congress:

• First vote:
  • Must be held immediately after the debate.
  • Requires an absolute majority of deputies: at least 176 votes in favor out of 350.
  • The vote is public by roll call: each deputy answers “yes,” “no,” or “abstention.”
• Second vote (48 hours later):
  • If the candidate does not reach the absolute majority in the first vote, a second vote is held after 48 hours.
  • In this second vote, a simple majority suffices: more votes in favor than against, excluding abstentions.
• Positive result:
  • If the candidate obtains the required majority (absolute in the first or simple in the second), they are invested.
  • The King formally appoints them Prime Minister by royal decree published in the Official State Gazette (BOE).

5. What happens if the candidate does not obtain confidence?

• New candidate proposals:
  • If the first candidate fails to gain confidence in both votes, the King may, after new consultations, propose another candidate or re-propose the same one if new possible majorities exist.
  • For each candidate, the process repeats: debate and, if applicable, up to two votes (absolute majority and then simple majority).
• Maximum two-month period:
  • The Constitution establishes a maximum period of two months from the first investiture vote (the first failed vote) for a candidate to obtain confidence.
  • The count starts on the date of that first failed vote, not from the elections.
• Automatic dissolution and new elections:
  • If those two months pass without any candidate being invested, the King automatically dissolves the Congress and the Senate.
  • A new general electoral process is called.
  • Meanwhile, the outgoing government remains in office with limited powers.

6. Role of the Senate and parliamentary nature of the procedure

The Senate does not intervene in the investiture: political confidence is concentrated in the Congress. The procedure is therefore clearly parliamentary: the government arises from the express support of the majority of the lower chamber, and if that confidence is later lost (for example, through a successful motion of no confidence), the prime minister can also be removed.

According to Law 50/1997, of November 27, on the Government, the Prime Minister has a very defined core of own powers, placing their figure in a position of primacy within the Executive. These powers are concentrated in article 2 of the Government Law, although the entire regulation reinforces their role in political leadership and organization of the Executive.

Article 2.1 generally establishes that the Prime Minister directs the action of the Government and coordinates the functions of the other members, without prejudice to the direct competence and responsibility of each minister in their area. This is the legal formulation of the so-called principle of presidential direction: the Government acts collegially, but the political line and coordination pass through the Prime Minister.

Specific powers (article 2.2 Government Law)

Article 2.2 details, “in any case,” a catalog of functions that belong specifically to the Prime Minister:

• Representation of the Government (letter a): the Prime Minister is the one who represents the Government internally and externally, both institutionally within the country and internationally, in matters concerning the Executive.
• Political direction and government program (letter b): they are responsible for establishing the Government's political program, setting the guidelines for domestic and foreign policy, and ensuring their compliance. They not only set the broad lines but also supervise that ministries follow them.
• Dissolution of the Cortes (letter c): they can propose to the King the dissolution of the Congress, the Senate, or the General Courts, after debate in the Council of Ministers. This is one of the key levers in the relationship between Government and Parliament.
• Motion of confidence (letter d): the Prime Minister can submit a motion of confidence to the Congress of Deputies, also after deliberation in the Council of Ministers, to reinforce or verify their parliamentary support.
• Consultative referendum (letter e): they can propose to the King the calling of a consultative referendum, provided the Congress of Deputies authorizes it. This is the mechanism provided in article 92 of the Constitution.
• Defense policy and Armed Forces (letter f): they direct defense policy and exercise, regarding the Armed Forces, the functions assigned by national defense legislation and military organization. This power places them at the political apex of the defense system.
• Council of Ministers (letter g): they have the power to convene, preside over, and set the agenda of the Council of Ministers, without prejudice to what article 62.g) of the Constitution attributes to the King. Thus, they control the formal agenda of the collegial body.
• Endorsement of the King's acts (letter h): they are responsible for endorsing, when applicable, the acts of the King and submitting laws and regulations with the force of law for his sanction, in accordance with articles 64 and 91 of the Constitution. The endorsement is the mechanism that transfers political responsibility for those acts to the Government.
• Constitutional challenge (letter i): they can file a constitutional challenge before the Constitutional Court against laws or regulations with the force of law considered contrary to the Constitution.
• Organization of the Government structure (letter j): they are empowered to create, modify, and abolish ministerial departments and State Secretariats by Royal Decree, as well as to approve the organic structure of the Presidency of the Government. They thus control the design of the political organizational chart of the Executive.
• Appointment and dismissal of ministers and vice presidents (letter k): they are responsible for proposing to the King the appointment and dismissal of Vice Presidents and Ministers. In practice, the Prime Minister decides the political composition of the Government.
• Conflicts between ministries (letter l): they resolve conflicts of competence between ministries, that is, when two departments disagree about who is competent in a specific matter.
• Instructions to Government members (letter m): they can give instructions to other members of the Government, reinforcing the functional subordination of ministries to the political direction of the Presidency.
• General closing clause (letter n): finally, they exercise any other powers conferred by the Constitution and laws. This clause allows integrating powers that may be assigned by other subsequent or specific regulations.

Overall, the Government Law configures the Prime Minister as the center of political and organizational direction of the Executive: designing the program, team, and structure of the Government; controlling the agenda of the Council of Ministers; articulating major decisions in relation to the Cortes (dissolution, confidence, referendum); assuming key responsibilities in defense and endorsement of the King's acts; and acting as the final instance to resolve internal cabinet conflicts.

Since the entry into force of the 1978 Constitution, there have been acting governments after all general elections and in some other cases (resignation, motion of no confidence). However, only on three occasions can one clearly speak of prolonged periods of acting government, and within these, two stand out as truly exceptional episodes due to their duration.

Constitutional framework: when and why there is an acting government

Article 101 of the Constitution and the Government Law establish that the Executive goes into acting status when:

• General elections are held and the previous government ceases.
• The prime minister resigns, dies, or loses parliamentary confidence.
• A motion of no confidence succeeds and there is a change of prime minister.

In all these cases, the outgoing government remains in acting status until the new Executive takes office. In practice, the really long periods have mainly been due to deadlocks in investiture after elections, which have even forced repeat elections.

1. 1996: complex transition from Felipe González to José María Aznar

After the general elections of March 1996, Felipe González's government went into acting status while the investiture of José María Aznar was negotiated. The PP's victory was narrow and required agreements with nationalist forces (CiU, PNV, Canary Coalition), which extended the formation of the new Executive for a little over two months.

Although this period did not reach the scale of later deadlocks, at the time it was already an unusually long interim period, linked to:

• A very tight seat result.
• The need to articulate complex legislative agreements.
• The transition from a long period of socialist majorities to a new political cycle.

2. 2015‑2016: Mariano Rajoy's record (316 days)

The first major deadlock of the multiparty era occurred after the December 20, 2015 elections. Mariano Rajoy's government went into acting status and remained so, according to press and constitutional analysis counts, for about 316 days, the longest period in recent democracy.

The main political causes were:

• The emergence of new forces (Podemos and Ciudadanos) that broke the PP-PSOE bipartite logic.
• The lack of clear majorities and Rajoy's initial refusal to undergo a first investiture without sufficient support.
• The failed investiture attempt of Pedro Sánchez with a PSOE-Ciudadanos agreement that did not gather enough votes.
• The repeat election in June 2016 due to the impossibility of investing a president within the constitutional deadline.

Only after the second elections and a deep internal crisis in the PSOE, which ended up facilitating the socialists' abstention, was Rajoy invested and this very long acting period ended. This episode is the paradigm of the “investiture deadlock” in Spain.

3. 2019‑2020: Pedro Sánchez and the repeat election (254 days)

The second major prolonged interim case occurred after the April 28, 2019 elections. Pedro Sánchez's government went into acting status and remained so for about 254 days, until the investiture in January 2020.

Again, the decisive factor was the investiture deadlock:

• The April results gave victory to the PSOE but without a sufficient majority.
• Negotiations with Unidas Podemos and nationalist parties stalled and the July 2019 investiture failed.
• Upon exhausting the two-month period without an invested candidate, there was a new dissolution of the Cortes and repeat election in November 2019.
• Only after those second elections was the agreement reached for the first coalition government in democracy, ending the acting status.

Summary: how many times and why

In summary, since 1978 there have been three clearly prolonged episodes of acting government:

• 1996: transition from González to Aznar, a little over two months, due to the need for investiture agreements.
• 2015‑2016: Rajoy, about 316 days in acting status, with repeat election due to investiture deadlock.
• 2019‑2020: Sánchez, about 254 days in acting status, also with repeat election due to lack of agreements.

Other shorter periods linked to ordinary elections or the resignation of Adolfo Suárez in 1981 exist but do not reach the level of “prolonged” in comparative terms. Overall, the Spanish experience shows that major episodes of acting government are almost always explained by highly fragmented parliaments and difficulty in achieving investiture majorities, rather than crises derived from resignations or motions of no confidence.