March 2012); vice presidents
appointed by the monarch on the proposal of the president
election results: Jose Luis Rodriguez ZAPATERO reelected President
of the Government; percent of National Assembly vote - 46.94%

Legislative branch:

bicameral; General Courts or National Assembly or Las Cortes
Generales consists of the Senate or Senado (264 seats as of 2008;
208 members directly elected by popular vote and the other 56 - as
of 2008 - appointed by the regional legislatures; to serve four-year
terms) and the Congress of Deputies or Congreso de los Diputados
(350 seats; each of the 50 electoral provinces fills a minimum of
two seats and the North African enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla fill
one seat each with members serving a four-year term; the other 248
members are determined by proportional representation based on
popular vote on block lists who serve four-year terms)
elections: Senate - last held on 9 March 2008 (next to be held in
March 2012); Congress of Deputies - last held on 9 March 2008 (next
to be held in March 2012)
election results: Senate - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by
party - PP 101, PSOE 88, Entesa Catalona de Progress 12, CiU 4, PNV
2, CC 1, members appointed by regional legislatures 56; Congress of
Deputies - percent of vote by party - PSOE 43.6%, PP 40.1%, CiU
3.1%, PNV 1.2%, ERC 1.2%, other 10.8%; seats by party - PSOE 169, PP
154, CiU 10, PNV 6, ERC 3, other 8

Judicial branch:

Supreme Court or Tribunal Supremo

Political parties and leaders:

Aragonese Party or CHA [Bizen FUSTER]; Basque Nationalist Party or
PNV [Inigo URKULLU]; Basque Solidarity or EA [Begona ERRAZTI];
Canarian Coalition or CC [Jose Torres STINGA] (a coalition of five
parties); Convergence and Union or CiU [Artur MAS i Gavarro] (a
coalition of the Democratic Convergence of Catalonia or CDC [Artur
MAS i Gavarro] and the Democratic Union of Catalonia or UDC [Josep
Antoni DURAN i LLEIDA]); Entesa Catalonia de Progress (a Senate
coalition grouping four Catalan parties - PSC, ERC, ICV, EUA);
Galician Nationalist Bloc or BNG [Anxo Manuel QUINTANA Gonzalez];
Initiative for Catalonia Greens or ICV [Joan SAURA i Laporta];
Navarra yes or Na Bai [Uxue BARKOS Berruezo] (a coalition of four
Navarran parties); Popular Party or PP [Mariano RAJOY Brey];
Republican Left of Catalonia or ERC [Josep-Lluis CAROD-ROVIRA];
Spanish Socialist Workers Party or PSOE [Jose Luis Rodriguez
ZAPATERO]; United Left or IU [Gaspar LLAMAZ