The Spanish monarchy is a Constitutional monarchy. The king of Spain is the symbol of the unit and the permanence of the Spanish State. He returns to him to arbitrate and control the regular operation of the institutions and to represent the nation, without counting attributions which allot to him expressly the Constitution and laws. He is also commander-in-chief of the armies ( Capitán General of los Ejércitos ).

The Spanish Constitution of 1978 treats institution of the Crown, of the person of the king and his functions in its title II, which includes/understands articles 56 to 65.

The person of the king or the queen of Spain

The title of king of Spain is recognized by the Constitution, which finds and incorporates in its text all the explicit and tacit rules which traditionally governed monarchy in Spain. Moreover, the Constitution recognizes with the king the right to use all the other titles which are attached to the Crown.

The Constitution recognizes with the person of the king or the queen absolute inviolability and withdraws by advance any responsibility for its share, whether it is political or legal; however and like compensation, the Constitution establishes the disability of all the acts of the holder of the Crown which do not have the counter-signature envisaged, which must be that of the president of the Government, that of the ministers or that of the president of the Congrès of the deputies, according to the cases.

The counter-signature is a legal formula whereby the acts of the holder of the Crown are recognized valid only when they are signed or authorized also by the person determined beforehand by the Constitution, anybody who of this fact assumes all the responsibility for the act in itself.

The Crown

The Crown is the constitutional institution which in Spain establishes the Head of the State, with characteristics suitable for Spanish monarchy, which are:

• hereditary succession of its holder, by the means of the successive generations of the royal family;
• the absolute inviolability and the immunity of its holder;
• the absence of political initiative and effective capacity ( potestas );
• possession of an elevated level of authority ( auctoritas );
• the realization by its holder of a series of acts defined in order to regularize the operation of the State.

The official residence of Spanish monarchy is the Royal palace ( Palacio Real ) of Madrid. However, the royal family currently resides at the Palais of Zarzuela to the periphery of Madrid.

Succession with the throne

The succession with the throne follows the male order of primogeniture, according to which the line former to the posterior ones will be always preferred, in the same line the degree nearest with most distant, with the same degree the boy with the girl and in the same sex the oldest person with her juniors.

This type of succession is called agnatic and is not salic, because with the difference of the Salic law, one does not exclude the women from the succession; simply they are located behind their brothers, even if those are younger. Currently is discussed the idea to modify the Constitution to allow that the succession is done in favor of the oldest person, independently of its sex, which would lead to a succession by strict primogeniture.

The people who are entitled to the succession with the throne can marry freely; however if the marriage runs up against express prohibition of the holder of the Crown and the the Cortes Generales , in this case the person in question loses her death tax for him and her descendants. That means that any marriage is supposed to be celebrated with the approval of the holder of the Crown and the Cortes Generales, except contrary proof, and that the opposition to this marriage must be expressed in manner express as well by one as by the others; if only one of those would be opposed to the marriage, this last could be celebrated without any consequence for the person in question. The current king d' Espagne east Juan Carlos Ier.

Constitutional functions

The king or the queen of Spain, to fulfill his mission of symbolization and representation of the State and that of arbitration and regulation of the work of the institutions, achieves a series of actions which are more or less stated and fixed by the Constitution.

One can enumerate the following actions like most representative and important among those which fall within the competence of the holder of the Crown:

• to ratify and promulgate the laws. It is the royal ratification which gives to the law its executory force, even if it were approved by the the Cortes Generales . The king or the queen must carry out the promulgation, and the publication of the laws to be brought to the knowledge of all, particular and authorities, and for this reason, they are invested of a general obligatory force (constitutional principle of publicity of the laws);
• to convene and dissolve the the General Cortes and to convene new elections in the terms envisaged in the Constitution. On a proposal from Government (Spain)|], the holder of the Crown has the capacity to put an end in a way anticipated to the mandate of the senators and deputies, or many two rooms or of only one of them, by the means of a royal decree of dissolutio N; this decree will have moreover specify the date of the elections. The king or the queen convenes new elections, either following a dissolution of one of the rooms, or with fine the normal of the mandate of these rooms;
• to convene the electorate for a referendum in the cases envisaged in the Constitution. The king or the queen has the exclusive right call upon the people and subject to the consultation of the nation any project or question which the president of the Government proposed to him, with the prior approval of the Congrès of the deputies. It is also the obligatory procedure to be able to bring a reform to the Constitution;
• to propose with the Congress deputies a person for the position of president of the Government, like naming it or putting an end to its functions, in the terms envisaged in the Constitution. After each renewal of the Congress of the deputies or when this one refuses its confidence with the Government, the holder of the Crown consults the chiefs of the political groups having a parliamentary representation and proposes with the Congress deputies a candidate with the presidency of the Government; he names it if the Congress grants its confidence to him; he proposes another person in the contrary case. Moreover it names as chair Government the candidate whose name is attached to a motion of censure approved by the Congress of the deputies against the reversed Government;

• to name and put an end to the functions other members of the Government, on a proposal from its president;
• to publish the decrees approved in the Council of Ministers;
• to chair this Council on the request of the president of the Government, when it considers it convenient, with an aim of being informed businesses of the State;
• to name the people with civil or military employment;
• to grant the honors and distinctions in accordance with the laws;
• right of reprieve. The king or the queen has the right, on a proposal from the Government, to give whole or part of all the judgments pronounced by the courts of justice, which they are civil or soldiers; this grace can be made in a conditional or unconditional way;
• the high patronage of the royal Academies;
• to accredit the ambassadors and other diplomatic representatives of the kingdom; it is also in front of him or it that are accredited the foreign ambassadors and diplomatic representatives;
• to ratify the international treaties with the assent of the State;
• to declare the war and to make peace, with the prior approval of the the General Cortes .

Complete titles

The complete titles of kings d' Espagne, although they are not used, are the following:

King d' Espagne, king of Castille, León, Aragon, the Deux-Siciles, Jerusalem, Navarre, Grenade, Tolède, Valence, Galicia, Sardinia, Cordoue, Corsica, Murcie, Jaén, the Algarve, Algeciras, Gibraltar, the Canary islands, the the Eastern Indies, the the Western Indies, the islands and continent ocean; Archduke of Austria, Duke of Burgundy, the Brabant, the Milan, Athens and Néopatras; Count de Habsbourg, of the Flandres, the the Tyrol, the Roussillon, and Barcelona; lord of Biscay and of; captain-general and supreme leader of the royal Armed forces; sovereign large-Master of the Order of the Golden Fleece and the orders dependant on the Spanish State.

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