Armengol convenes the investiture debate on September 26th and 27th

The president of the Congress of Deputies, Francina Armengol, announced this Wednesday that the investiture plenary session of the PP candidate Alberto Núñez Feijóo will be held within a month, on September 26 and 27

The investiture debate prior to the formation of the Government already has a date. Francina Armengol, president of the Congress of Deputies, has set September 26 and 27 to hold the plenary session.

Armengol has made this Wednesday morning a brief institutional statement at the headquarters of the lower house. In it, the president of the Congress said that the date has been agreed with the leader of the PP and candidate for investiture, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, after the appointment of the King that took place yesterday after the round of contacts that Felipe VI held on Tuesday and Tuesday with the main political leaders.

Felipe VI receives Feijóo, during the round of contacts for the investiture at the Zarzuela Palace. Photo: Congress of Deputies.

“I consider that with this date a more than prudential time is given so that the candidate can carry out the appropriate negotiations with the representatives of the different political formations”, she said.

The electoral repetition could be on January 14

If the PP candidate, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, does not get the support to be invested within a month, in the plenary session of September 26 and 27, there is a period of two months from that date for the leader of the PP or the PSOE candidate, Pedro Sánchez, to continue seeking support for a government majority, before new elections are called. Thus, these would be held on Sunday, January 14, according to the deadlines established by the electoral law. The electoral campaign would last one week and would begin on January 5.

After a first failed investiture, the King would open a new round of consultations and, once finished, he would have to propose a new candidate. If in two months, a period that begins to run from the first vote, no one manages to be invested, Felipe VI will dissolve the Cortes and call new elections.

Those elections would be held 47 days later, according to the reform made to the Organic Law of the General Electoral Regime (LOREG) in 2016 for specific cases of electoral repetition. Since the countdown is activated after the first vote of the investiture, the date of the new elections depends on the day chosen by the president of the Congress, Francina Armengol, to hold the investiture.