Cuca Gamarra announced this Thursday that a Government of Alberto Núñez Feijóo would limit the use of decree-laws. The deputy secretary of Institutional Regeneration of the PP believes that Pedro Sánchez's Executive has resorted too frequently to this formula and wants Parliament to have more space to debate and modify laws again.
"The Royal Decree-Law cannot be and will not be the usual system," she said during the I Public Affairs Summit, held in Madrid. Gamarra presented the proposal as part of a reform of parliamentary functioning, although she did not specify what concrete limit she would establish or how she would apply it.
A discussion that returns with the housing decrees
The Constitution allows the Government to approve decree-laws in cases of "extraordinary and urgent necessity". They come into force without waiting for the processing of an ordinary law, but Congress must decide within 30 days whether to validate or repeal them. The difference matters because the Executive can act immediately and Parliament votes later on an already approved text.
The discussion has gained strength this week. The Government again approved on Tuesday two housing decrees that had been rejected by the full Congress. After the dissolution of the Cortes due to the elections on November 29, their validation will correspond to the Permanent Deputation. For the PP, this episode shows why it is necessary to restrict the use of that route; the Executive defends the urgency of the measures in the face of the housing crisis.
The debate also has a broader dimension. A count published this week by 'El País' puts the number of decree-laws approved during the legislature at 43, compared to 22 laws. Gamarra argues that this way of governing reduces the opportunities for deputies to negotiate changes in the rules and has proposed reforming the regulations of Congress and the Senate to prevent initiatives from being blocked for months.
Budgets and control of interest groups
The popular leader also wants to establish consequences when a Government does not present the General State Budgets. The Constitution already obliges the Executive to submit them to Congress at least three months before the end of the previous fiscal year and provides for the extension of the current accounts if the new ones are not approved. Gamarra has not specified what mechanism the PP would add to demand their presentation.
Another of their proposals is to create a public, free, and mandatory register of interest groups, supervised by an independent authority. On this point, there is a recent precedent: the Government approved a decree-law in August to regulate the activity of these groups, but Congress repealed it on September 16 by 179 votes to 155. The regulation therefore remains pending.
Gamarra has included these measures in an institutional regeneration agenda and has called for the recovery of agreements between the Government and the opposition on issues such as defense, security, and foreign policy. According to her, an Executive presided over by Feijóo would seek to reopen that dialogue from the beginning of the next legislature.
