Introduction

Parliamentary Groups are groupings of Members of Congress produced by political or ideological affinity. Although not a necessary requirement, Parliamentary Groups are usually a reflection within the House of the political parties or party coalitions that have joined forces in the elections, and Members who belong to the same party or coalition form each group.

The Groups have an important role in the internal functioning of Congress and they are the true actors who participate in the decision-making process. Thus, the positions in the Committees and Permanent Deputation are distributed proportionally among them, allowing the Groups to make substitutions among their members. Their representatives constitute the Board of Spokesmen, which is the decision instrument of the agenda for Plenary sittings. Members of Congress occupy seats of the plenary sitting hall, which are distributed by groups. Certain initiatives, such as bills, amendments to the whole and non-legislative motions are reserved for them. Debates normally involve the opportunity to make speeches in turn, and this responsibility is usually carried out by the spokesmen of the groups. They receive a subsidy from the House budget, premises, and other materials.

In order to form a parliamentary group, a meeting of at least 15 members is necessary. It is possible to form a group with a meeting of 5 members when the political parties have obtained at least 15% of the votes in the constituencies in which they have put a candidate, or 5% of the votes cast in the country as a whole. However, these minimums are only required in order to create a group, not for their later functioning; their dissolution will occur only when their number falls below half the number previously mentioned. Members who do not include themselves in any of the voluntarily created groups will be included in the Mixed Group.