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Felipe VI presides over the solemn opening session of the 1th legislature on Wednesday in a political climate marked by the radical confrontation between the government, the opposition and the two chambers that represent national sovereignty on account of the amnesty that Pedro Sánchez has agreed for those who promoted and led the coup against the unity of the State on October 2017, <> in exchange for their votes for the investiture.

The solemn opening finally marks the beginning of activity in a Congress that, despite having been constituted on August 17, has remained practically closed until now waiting for the PSOE's negotiations with the nationalist and pro-independence parties to bear fruit so that Sánchez could reissue himself at the head of a coalition government.

The legislature that the King opens today is indelibly marked by an amnesty that grants impunity to those who attacked the State and to those who fled Spain to avoid having to be held accountable before the Justice, an amnesty that erases the crimes committed, that annuls the sentences handed down and that turns the message of Felipe VI to the nation into a dead letter. pronounced on October 3, 2017, to condemn the attempt to "break the unity of Spain and national sovereignty" sponsored precisely by those who headed the Generalitat.

The King's words in this solemn act that brings together both chambers in Congress are awaited with expectation because in both he must combine his role as moderating arbiter of the institutions of the State without falling into interference but also his status as Head of State, symbol of its unity and permanence. A unity that the Constitution defines as indissoluble but that the parties that have promoted the investiture and support the new government intend to undo.

The monarch's speech at the solemn opening of the legislature always has a prominent political content and on this occasion his words will be scrutinized in detail by all parliamentary forces.

On this basis of confrontation between political formations and between powers of the State, punctuated by massive protests in the streets, a new legislature begins whose duration remains in the hands of minority forces that openly deny the Constitution and its fundamental principles.

Regular absences

The solemn session will not be attended by the parties that reject the parliamentary monarchy as a political form of the State - ERC, Junts, EH Bildu and BNG - all of them now allies and supporters of the Government. The PNV, on the other hand, will be present, unlike the decision it took on October 31 not to attend the swearing in of the Constitution by Princess Leonor, heir to the Crown. The Basque nationalists will go to the Hemicycle and listen to the King's words, but they will be absent from the subsequent military parade because they consider that the participation of the Armed Forces does not take place in a parliamentary act. The session is also planned to be attended by the members of Sumar for whom this act is strictly parliamentary and not monarchical.

Felipe VI will be accompanied in the presidential gallery of the Hemicycle by Queen Letizia; Princess Leonor; the president of the Congress, Francina Armengol; the President of the Senate, Pedro Rollán, and the members of the Bureaus of both chambers.

  • Politics
  • Congress of Deputies