Los grupos políticos municipales

Abstract

The basic organization of local entities was complemented by the introduction of the political group institution which is rooted in the parliamentary framework. This introduction has not been done with the regulation of the essential features of the institution –concept, legal framework, legal nature of the acts adopted, functions, competences, etc.– and, as a consequence, organic local decrees have become, in practice, the basic source of law which defines the legal framework of the institution. The Spanish Supreme Court has ratified this role of organic local decrees in several occasions, considering that this type of source of law is a valid instrument for regulating political groups in this limited framework established by the legislator.
This lack of uniform regulation and, particularly, the legal implementation of the 1999 agreement on an ethical code about the phenomenon of political defection, have increased the complexity in this field and also have generated a considerable volume of case-law of the Spanish Constitutional Court on the scope of the fundamental right of political participation. This article focuses on the study of the fundamental right of political participation and the essential features of political groups

Keywords:

political group, coalition of minority parties, speaker, political defection, councilmen no ascribed to political parties, ius in oficium, weighted vote, financial envelope