Cortes Españolas


The Cortes Españolas, known informally as the Cortes franquistas, was the name of the legislative institution promulgated by the Caudillo of Spain Francisco Franco which was established on 17 July 1942, and opened its first session on 17 March 1943. The Cortes sought to present itself as the highest organisational body for the Spanish people and to participate in the work of the State. Its members were known as procuradores, reviving a term used for legislators prior to the Napoleonic era.
The main function of the Cortes was the development and adoption of laws, but under its subsequent sanction reserved to the Head of State.
To identify itself as a continuation of the Spanish parliamentary tradition, the Cortes was seated at the Palace of the Cortes, Madrid. However, this institution had greater similarity with the corporate system of Italian Fascism. Its members supposedly represented the various elements of Spanish society. The Cortes was not intended as the repository of national sovereignty, since all sovereign power was concentrated in the head of state, Franco, in the absence of separation of powers. The government was not responsible to it; ministers were appointed and dismissed by Franco alone. It also had no power over government spending.
Franco himself rejected any identification with liberal democracy. Instead, he conceived his system as a solvent ideology of national unity between social classes and territories. Prosecutors were ex officio members, appointed by the Head of State or chosen from corporate entities, and until 1967 did not materialize the way of choosing a "third family".
Two family representatives from each region, elected by those who appear on the Electoral heads of households and married women in the manner established by the law.
Elections were held in July to cover that portion of the Deputies in the Cortes in 1967 and 1971.

Presidents