Method

Where does each fact come from?

El Pleno has no opinions. It collects the open data of the Cortes and the BOE, puts it in order and explains it in simple words, with a link to the source in every block.

Sources

• Congreso de los Diputados: deputies, groups, initiatives, their procedure and every plenary vote with each seat’s vote (open data at congreso.es).
• Senado: senators, groups and plenary votes (open data at senado.es).
• Boletín Oficial del Estado: published laws (the BOE open data API).
• Province map: boundaries from the Instituto Geográfico Nacional (IGN), Base de Datos de Líneas Límite, via the es-atlas package. Licence CC BY 4.0, © Instituto Geográfico Nacional.
• English translations: automatic, and marked as such. The official text is always the Spanish original.

How we tell it

• “More votes in favour”, not “passed”. Vote files do not say which majority was needed (an organic law needs 176 yes votes in the Congreso), so we say which side had more votes. We only call a law “passed” when its official page says so.
• Each deputy’s province is the one of their seat on the day of the vote. Senators appointed by a regional parliament have no province.
• Voting differently from their group: we compare their vote with what most of their group voted in that vote, leaving out those who did not vote. If the group tied, we do not compare.
• The seven steps of a law (introduced, admitted, amendments, committee, plenary, Senate, BOE) come from the dates of its official procedure.
• Summaries: they are written by artificial intelligence from the official text and carry the “automatic” label until a person reviews them. If there is no summary, we show the official title and say so.

How to read the marks

Committee step 4 of 7

The seven-piece arc is the one in our logo: it fills up to the step the law reached.

More votes in favour 178 yes · 170 no · 2 abst.

A small chamber of 33 dots shared out like the votes, and the result in words.

Yes No Abstained Did not vote

Each person’s vote: a full circle, a circle with a bar, a half circle or a dotted circle. They can be told apart without colour too.

Artificial intelligence and editorial responsibility

Some El Pleno texts are written with the help of artificial intelligence, always from the official texts:

• Plain-language summaries of bills, in Spanish and English.
• Clear names: a short title for bills with long official names.
• English translations of official titles, steps and texts.

Any text generated by artificial intelligence that nobody has reviewed carries the “automatic” label, on the page, on share cards and in the data we offer. When a person reviews it and approves it, we remove the label and record who reviewed it and when. Official data (votes, dates, steps) is never written by artificial intelligence: it comes straight from the sources.

Editorial responsibility for everything El Pleno publishes lies with its controller, Ismael Arenzana. If a summary says something the official text does not, it is our mistake: tell us at [email protected].

Question search, when available, will use artificial intelligence only to understand what you ask. The answer is not written by artificial intelligence: it is bills, votes and people taken from our database, each with its source.

We do this to comply with Article 50 of the EU Artificial Intelligence Act (Regulation (EU) 2024/1689). We only send public official texts to artificial intelligence services, never user data.

The rules we follow are in the editorial principles. To report an error or request a correction, see corrections and right of reply.

Privacy

You sign in with a passkey: we store no passwords or email addresses. We keep the name you choose, your province if you give it and, with your separate permission, what you follow. No ads and no trackers. Everything is in the privacy policy and the cookie policy.

Report an error

Every block links to its official source, so you can check it. If the official data does not match what you see here, the mistake is ours. We will soon have a form to tell us.