Feijóo's constitutional wall: why the "plus" of deputies is impossible without reforming the magna carta?
The consulted experts warn that giving seats to the most voted list breaks with the requirements of article 68 of the Constitution
BarcelonaGoverning without depending on pacts is the great aspiration of any candidate for Moncloa. With this objective in their sights, the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, has resurrected a controversial recipe that his predecessor, Pablo Casado, already put on the table: giving an extra bonus of deputies to the most voted list in the general elections. Would it be possible with a simple reform of the electoral law as the popular party proposes? All experts consulted by ARA agree emphatically that no: to be able to apply the measure, the Constitution would have to be reformed.
The main technical obstacle is explicitly found in article 68 of the Magna Carta. According to Josep Maria Castellà, professor of constitutional law at the University of Barcelona, this precept establishes "two clauses that make this fit poorly". On the one hand, there is "the distribution of seats by province", and on the other, the obligation that "the distribution must be proportional within the province". This double condition makes the province the base constituency of the entire system.
As Joan Botella, emeritus professor of political science at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), asks, in the event of creating a state pool of deputies, "where would they come from? Would they parachute into Congress? To which province would they be attributed?". Botella argues that, while it is true that legislation can increase the current number of deputies up to the maximum limit of 400 provided for in the Constitution itself, these "would always have to be distributed through the provincial constituency". This makes it entirely impossible to impose an extra list of a purely state character without opening the difficult can of worms of constitutional reform, as the current text does not provide for the existence of representatives unconnected to a specific territory.
Proportionality
Despite the undeniable constitutional requirement for proportional representation, the Spanish model is not pure (10% of votes does not equate to 10% of seats in the province). According to Castellà, the Constitution already provides for some corrections specifically designed, in the opinion of the Constitutional Court itself, "to favor stability and governability". Among these elements are the fixed minimum of two deputies per province (representatives who are cheaper in small provinces than in large cities like Madrid or Barcelona), the electoral threshold of 3% to enter the distribution, and, above all, the application of the D'Hondt law, which "ends up favoring the large parties".
According to Joan Lluís Pérez Francesch, professor of constitutional law at the UAB, Feijóo's proposal introduces a quantitative element that "would destroy the D'Hondt law" because it would nullify the gradual distribution based on actual votes. Other legal voices consulted agree, pointing out that awarding seats arbitrarily "does not represent any proportion" but rather "is a gift to the party with the most votes". For experts, this change would go "against the already corrected proportionality" and would blow up the will of the 1978 constituent.
The mirages of Italy and Greece
The Popular Party justifies the measure by mirroring foreign models, but experts warn of the significant differences. Regarding Italy, the bonus for the winning party is, for now, only a proposal by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. For now, the Italian system is mixed: one-third is elected by a majoritarian single-member system, while the rest maintains a strictly proportional model. As for Greece, where Parliament approved a bonus for the winner with fifty deputies, Castellà warns that it is an unstable model that "has been changing".
Experts warn that importing these systems would polarize society by turning elections into an "all or nothing" that would prevent a culture of compromise. For Pérez Francesch, the PP's proposal is purely "contingent" and "desperate" to reach La Moncloa. The real objective, warn the consulted sources, is to be able to govern by trying to "marginalize peripheral nationalist parties" so as never to depend on Basque and Catalan votes.
