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In brief
EL PAÍS reports seven investigation commissions and three rule changes since 2023, the first struck down by the Constitutional Court in March 2025, the others in June and November 2025.
On Friday 2 October the PP announced an eighth investigation commission on the Ceuta border surge, with Alicia García as spokesperson. Pedro Sánchez called elections for 29 November three days later.
The two parties will run together for the Senate in 43 provinces after almost a year of mediation by civil-society figures such as Enrique del Olmo.
An opinion column argues that PP and Vox aim for three-fifths of the Senate to control the renewal of the Constitutional Court, which it says has been blocked despite the court's call for renewal.
Ceuta
Ceuta · Spain
How it came to this
November 2025PP approves another Senate rules reform; PSOE asks the Constitutional Court to intervene
2 OctPP announces a new offensive and an eighth investigation commission on Ceuta
5 OctSánchez calls elections for 29 November and the Cortes Generales are dissolved
A chamber turned into an opposition platform
The Senate, where the People's Party (PP) holds an absolute majority, has become the PP's main institutional instrument against the government of Pedro Sánchez, according to EL PAÍS. Over the past three years the PP has used the chamber to slow the amnesty law and has opened seven investigation commissions. In November 2023, after Sánchez's investiture, Alberto Núñez Feijóo pledged that the PP would defend Spain from the Senate. The party then applied its absolute majority to change the chamber's rules without consensus. The first reform let the Senate's governing board decide whether a bill from Congress followed urgent procedure, with a 20-day limit, or the ordinary route, which in practice could stretch out the approval of laws such as the amnesty law. The Constitutional Court struck that reform down in March 2025.
The PP responded with further rule changes in June and November 2025, aimed at strengthening its powers against the government and Congress. The PSOE asked the Constitutional Court to intervene in both cases.
The offensive and the early election call
On Friday 2 October the PP announced a new "offensive" against the government in the Senate. Its spokesperson, Alicia García, said the chamber would approve the following week the creation of an eighth investigation commission, this time on the border surge in Ceuta. Three days later, on 5 October, Pedro Sánchez called elections for 29 November, and the Cortes Generales were dissolved at an extraordinary Council of Ministers meeting. The PP's plans collapsed with the dissolution, so the eighth commission never took shape.
Joint lists on the left
The PSOE and Frente Amplio agreed to run together for the Senate in 43 provinces. The pact followed almost a year of mediation by civil-society figures, among them Enrique del Olmo, one of the promoters of the left-wing coalition from civil society. Del Olmo tied the alliance directly to the PP's conduct in the chamber.
“That latest statement of intent from the PP sums up how throughout the whole legislature it has used the Senate as a stiletto against the government.”
Enrique del Olmo
A member of the PSOE's federal leadership, not named in the article, said the joint lists might not have been possible had the PP not turned the Senate into a machine of opposition to a government whose legitimacy it questioned.
The three-fifths argument
An opinion column in eldiario.es argues that the PP and Vox are seeking three-fifths of the Senate in order to control the renewal of the Constitutional Court. The column says that renewal has been blocked for some time, even though the court has urged the Senate to carry it out. It also argues that control of the court would allow the coalition to overturn the Constitution without formally reforming it. The column further holds that the government's legitimacy runs for the whole legislature following its parliamentary investiture, and that the motion of censure has not been filed. These are the column's claims, not established facts.
What remains open
The joint PSOE and Frente Amplio lists are set to contest the Senate at the 29 November election. The PSOE's requests for Constitutional Court intervention over the 2025 rule changes are part of the same dispute. The seven investigation commissions opened by the PP during the legislature stand as the record that the PSOE cites in the Senate fight. The Constitutional Court renewal, according to the column, will be decided by which side controls the Senate after the vote.
Spain's Senate fight: PP's offensive and PSOE-Frente Amplio joint lists before 29 November vote
The PP has used the Senate as its main opposition platform, and the PSOE and Frente Amplio now run joint Senate lists in 43 provinces ahead of the 29 November election.
AI text based on reports by eldiario.es and EL PAÍS. Published .