Residence No official residence | Appointer None Formation 13 July 1977 | |
Term length No fixed termWhile leader of the largest political party not in government | ||
The Leader of the Opposition (Spanish: Líder de la oposición) is an unofficial, mostly conventional and honorary title traditionally held by the leader of the largest party in the Congress of Deputies—the lower house of the Spanish parliament, the Cortes Generales—not within the government. He/she is usually the person who is expected to lead that party into the next general election.
Contents
The last undisputed Leader of the Opposition was Pedro Sánchez, who served until resigning from the role on 1 October 2016.
Role
There is some ambiguity on the requirements needed to hold the post due to its workings being based mostly on custom and convention. The term of "Leader of the Opposition" is only legally recognized in a Royal Decree passed in 1983 establishing the order of preference of public authorities in general official acts organized by the Crown, Government or the State Administration, acknowledging the figure of Opposition Leader but only to put it in fifteenth place in the list of precedences.
By agreement of the Congress bureau of 28 December 1982, Manuel Fraga was officially recognized as Leader of the Opposition by the PSOE government of Felipe González—himself having unofficially led opposition from 1977 to 1982. Such an agreement established a series of conditions for the role and awarded some prerogatives for the officeholder:
- Determination of the person fulfilling the role of leader of the opposition must meet criteria of effective parliamentary number preeminence
- There must not be a formal appointment
- There is no need to raise compatibility issues for the role
- Must lack a full-blown salary, even if it may have a right to representation expenses, vehicle availability as well as the care provided for bureau members
However, despite the possibility for some privileges in consideration of its position being optionally awarded, the Leader of the Opposition is not entitled to a specific salary aside from the one they may have by reason of holding a public office on their own—such as that of deputy or senator. In addition, the officeholder usually receives much more attention from the media in parliamentary sessions and activities, such as in the yearly-held State of the Nation Debate.
Even with the absence of a law defining the role of the Opposition Leader, it is customary to conduct update meetings between the Prime Minister and the chairman of the largest party not within the government. However, such meetings are carried out mostly according to the Prime Minister's decision. Established precedent has also led for the Leader of the Opposition usually sitting directly across from the Prime Minister in the Congress seating plan. It is not required for a Leader of the Opposition to held the post of deputy in Congress—Antonio Hernández Mancha held the office without having a seat in Congress, though he was a senator.
History
On 1986, Manuel Fraga resigned as People's Alliance chairman and was replaced in the interim by Miguel Herrero de Miñón. While Herrero de Miñón served as interim AP leader until a party congress was held in February 1987, he was acknowledged as Opposition Leader on his own right, the only such case for a interim party leader ever since.
In 1998, with the People's Party in government, Josep Borrell beat PSOE Secretary General Joaquín Almunia in a party primary to elect the party's candidate to Prime Minister in the subsequent general election. Almunia maintained his post as party leader whereas Borrell was named the party's spokesperson in Congress and was awarded leadership over the parliamentary party, with the later being officially referred to as the leader of the opposition. However, both Almunia and Borrell kept clashing on leadership issues for months—in a situation referred to as 'bicephaly'—until an agreement between the two parts definitely recognized Borrell the condition of opposition leader in November 1998. He would eventually resign as candidate on May 1999, awarding Almunia the sole and undisputed leadership over the party and opposition.
The office came again under dispute in 2016, days after a caretaker committee under Javier Fernández had taken control over PSOE as a result of a leadership crisis in October. Pablo Iglesias of Podemos subsequently self-proclaimed himself as new opposition leader on the basis of his party's strength in Congress being close to PSOE's—67 seats to 84. During Mariano Rajoy's second investiture debate on 27 October, Spanish media and parliamentarians acknowledged Iglesias the role of Opposition Leader by virtue of Rajoy addressing him as his main rival during a heated dialectical exchange, coupled with PSOE's perceived inability to exercise as opposition after choosing to allow Rajoy's election.
List of Opposition leaders
Overall leaders names are bolded. Interim or disputed leaders are in italics.