The Senate of Spain rejected the ratification of the treaty of friendship with France during Emmanuel Macron’s state visit to Madrid

Spain’s Senate, dominated by the right-wing opposition, rejected ratification of the friendship treaty with France on Tuesday evening, as President Emmanuel Macron was making a state visit to Madrid. The motion was rejected by 142 votes to 106.

Senators from the People’s Party (PP), which holds an absolute majority in the Senate, and those from the far-right Vox party voted against the treaty. Support came mainly from lawmakers from the Socialist Party (PSOE), led by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.

The vote took place while, several hundred metres away at the Royal Palace, the gala dinner attended by Emmanuel Macron, King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia was getting under way.

The treaty was initially signed in Barcelona in January 2023 by Macron and Sánchez. The document was subsequently ratified by Spain’s Congress of Deputies, as well as by France’s National Assembly and Senate.

However, the People’s Party opposed an article providing for a member of one country’s government to attend, at least once every three months, a meeting of the other country’s Council of Ministers. On September 23, Spain’s judiciary ruled that the treaty was constitutional. France has similar agreements with Germany, Italy and Poland, while Spain has previously signed comparable treaties only with Portugal and Morocco.