Eyes wide open and cell phone in hand. Everyone who entered the impressive Senate Library on Thursday was speechless. Many took a snapshot with their cell phones. “Crown Jewel!”; “What an amazing thing!” exclaimed some of those attending the House of Lords open day. For some, the space, planned in the 19th century, was reminiscent of the Harry Potter film. Others regretted that they could not examine the specimens stored on their iron shelves. The one that was seen up close and presented to the public in a display case is the session diary of October 31, 1978. The date on which the Senate debated and fully approved the text of the Constitution, three months after receiving it from Congress. 45 years ago now.
A month later, Antonio Giménez, now a 66-year-old retired soldier, took part in the referendum on the Basic Law. 67.11% took part in the consultation and 91.81% supported the Constitution, which in Article 69 provides for the Senate as the chamber of territorial representation. “I voted yes. “It captured me during my military training and in an environment like mine I lived it intensely,” recalls Giménez after completing the visit to the House of Lords, where he took advantage of his free time in retirement for the first time. In his opinion, the Senate has gained more weight today “due to the situation of the political forces.”
In the 23-J general elections, the PP won an absolute majority in the upper house against a divided body in Congress, where the socialist candidate Pedro Sánchez brought together 179 deputies for his inauguration after agreeing with the independence forces on an amnesty law for those in the be prosecuted as part of the proceedings. The People’s Party intends to hinder the parliamentary path of this norm through its power in the Senate, where this Thursday the queue of citizens waiting to enter went around the block with a wait of about an hour. “We pointed out at the door that the amnesty would be delayed here,” said Miguel Ángel Limón, 64 years old and an electronics technician, knowing that two weeks ago the popular parties reformed the rules of procedure of the upper house in order to delay the processing of the legislative proposal – from 20 days to two months – is in full swing.
But the majority of citizens today had come to the Senate more for its architectural and picturesque appeal than for the political issue. On its walls hang works such as “The Surrender of Granada” by Francisco Pradilla y Ortiz or “The Oath to the Constitution” by María Cristina by Joaquín Sorolla. “It’s like being in the royal palace,” commented María Martín, a 47-year-old travel agent who learned about the possibility of visiting the institution through the social network Tiktok. And the open days have been organized annually since 1997 and always around the anniversary of the constitution. Despite its rich heritage, senators’ plenary sessions and debates usually take place in newly constructed rooms, which is why the interior of the House of Lords came as a surprise to many visitors. “It looks much more modern from the outside,” says Raquel Monreal, 53, as she walks through the carpeted hallways.
At the meetings this Thursday and tomorrow Friday, citizens will discover spaces that are not accessible in everyday life. Among them, the Presidential Hall led by the popular Pedro Rollán, who received the first visitors of the morning in the Old Assembly Room, where two months ago the regional presidents of the PP intervened in the General Commission of the Autonomous Communities to indict Sánchez for the amnesty and economic concessions to Catalonia. This Commission will be one of the main instruments of the formation of Alberto Núñez Feijóo to challenge the President of the Government from the Senate, since it is the only forum in which representatives of the autonomous executive can intervene, among the 17 municipalities that exist 11 with popular president. “We have been enjoying more media attention recently,” parliamentary sources confirm.
The President of the Senate, Pedro Rollán, in the center, during the visit. JAVIER LIZÓN (EFE)
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Citizens are also provided with both a historical and political explanation of the Senate’s duties. Well, there were also many today who didn’t know what was happening between its shiny walls. Some people weren’t even aware that the PP now has an absolute majority. Among them is Marta López, 19 years old. “The Senate never caught my attention,” admits this student of the clinical and biomedical laboratory training cycle, who was visiting Madrid with her mother and her aunt and decided to come and take a look. “Politicians use a lot of words that I don’t fully understand. If young people were educated in schools, we would learn a lot more,” he adds.
For Álvaro Peláez, a 40-year-old dental technician, the plenary sessions have little to no meaning: “I think everything was discussed before they meet for debate. “In half the cases no one is convinced because half the cases don’t even listen to each other.” Regardless of whether MPs are heard or not, the Senate will play a role as a counterweight to the coalition government in this recently inaugurated 15th electoral term, as the PP wants to turn a chamber that has so far been somewhat ignored into a real fortress.
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