The Congress of Deputies represents the Lower House of the Cortes Generales, which is called the constitutional body that represents the Spanish people. Their functions are known to all because they are in charge of approving the laws and the General State Budgets in Congress, among other functions.
At a general level, we can say, and as determined by the Spanish Constitution, which dates from 1978, that the Congress is made up of a minimum of 300 and a maximum of 400 Deputies, and currently, according to the Law of the General Electoral Regime, LOREG, is out of a total of 350.
How are the deputies of the Congress of Deputies elected?
They are elected by universal, free, equal, direct and secret suffrage, under the terms established by law (art. 68.1 CE) in the Spanish general elections. As we know, these elections are ordinarily held every four years, but they can be held earlier in exceptional cases, such as after an early dissolution of the Chambers.
Among the various norms that refer to how these deputies are chosen to be how many there are in total, the General Electoral Regime Law dictates that the provinces must thus have representation in Congress by at least two deputies. In the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla, a deputy corresponds to each one.
Counting according to the numbers, to give us the result, after the provinces, the total of 248 remaining seats must be distributed among the provinces in a proportional way always according to their population.
Congress meets in the Palacio de las Cortes, which is now in the Plaza de las Cortes in Madrid. It is there where the ordinary and extraordinary sessions are held during the year.
According to Congress, there are ups and downs in the legislature in the composition of parliamentary groups. “The replacement of a deputy who causes withdrawal is not immediate and, therefore, the number of members of a group is less until the replacement acquires the full status of deputy and joins a parliamentary group.”
Annual budget of the Chamber of the Congress of Deputies
The Chamber autonomously prepares its Budget, as established in Article 72 of the Constitution, which is approved each year by the Board and which is incorporated into the General State Budget bill for its processing.
On the Congress website there is all the information regarding the name and number of current deputies.
