Constitution reform definitively approved so that Formentera has its own senator

PalmThe plenary session of the Senate has definitively approved this Wednesday the reform of the Spanish Constitution promoted by the Balearic Parliament that modifies article 69.3 so that the island of Formentera has its own senator and is detached from the electoral tandem it currently forms with Ibiza.

The fourth reform of the Spanish Constitution of 1978 has already completed its journey, with only the rejection of Vox, so it will be sent directly to the Official State Gazette (BOE). The president of the Balearic Islands, Marga Prohens, was present at the vote on this constitutional reform in the Senate.

The Senate, like Congress, decided to process it in a single reading, without going through a committee or subcommittee, and therefore, no amendments were presented and only the original text from Congress was voted on.

The definitive support of the PP was unblocked in Congress after the PSOE allowed an amendment to the reform to be approved so that the designation "Ibiza" in Spanish is maintained in the Constitution and not Eivissa, as proposed by the Balearic Parliament. In any case, the Balearic Parliament had tried to approve this constitutional reform in the Cortes Generales in three other legislatures unsuccessfully, although the Cortes Generales have stepped on the accelerator and it has finally been approved.

Currently, Formentera and Ibiza share a joint electoral constituency for the Senate elections, a position currently held by Juanjo Ferrer, who ran in the last elections with the joint candidacy of PSOE, Sumar, EUIB, and Ara Eivissa.

Reform of article 69.3

The European Parliament's proposal, which was finally approved, was that section 3 of article 69 of the Spanish Constitution would include in its wording that one senator corresponds to the following islands: Ibiza, Formentera, Menorca, Fuerteventura, La Gomera, El Hierro, Lanzarote and La Palma.

They also include a sole additional provision, because the effectiveness of the creation of the electoral constituency in the Senate for the island of Formentera "will be delayed" until the immediate elections to the Senate, once this reform of the Spanish Constitution has entered into force.

Territorial singularities

In the explanatory statement, the Balearic Parliament defends that this reform of the Constitution aims for "the territorial, geographical and existential singularities of all the territories that make up Spain, in all their constitutive plurality and diversity, to be effectively recognized" in the Senate.

At the same time, it highlights the prominence of the Islands, because a decision like this "is considered a good constitutional reform", which is felt "as its own and valued, within the Archipelago itself (on equal footing with the Canary Islands) and, by extension, to Spain as a whole".