Spain's Senate rejected the Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation with France by 142 votes to 106, with one abstention. The most disputed clause would have allowed a French minister to join high-level Spanish government meetings every three months.
The vote came on the first day of Emmanuel Macron's state visit to Spain. The Partido Popular and Vox led the opposition.
The PP used its Senate majority to block the agreement after months of questions over whether the text complied with Spanish law. The Constitutional Court approved the treaty on September 23, 2026, after the upper chamber challenged it. The ruling did not end the political dispute.
The court said the ministerial provision was compatible with Spain's Constitution. It also found that inviting a minister from one country to the other country's Council of Ministers did not breach the country's basic law. The PP accepted the decision but argued that parts of the deal went beyond what its name suggested.
The treaty was signed in 2023 and had already been approved by Spain’s Congress of Deputies before the Senate rejected it at the final stage of ratification. After the Constitutional Court cleared the treaty, the Spanish government publicly urged the Senate to approve it as a priority. Madrid was seeking to complete ratification before the agreement's defeat in the upper chamber.
The party's basic objection was reciprocal access to cabinet meetings. Pilar Milagros Rojo said Spain and France needed to cooperate, though their interests would not always match. In the PP's view, the arrangement was a political concession the treaty's description as an instrument of friendship could not justify.
Vox had announced its opposition before the final vote. Ángel Pelayo Gordillo called the treaty outdated and unsuitable. He linked it to the Agenda 2030 and said a foreign minister's presence in Spain's Council of Ministers would weaken national sovereignty.
Gordillo also pointed to Jordan Bardella, saying Bardella's possible attendance at a Spanish cabinet meeting showed what the agreement could allow.
The treaty covered more than the disputed article. It sought closer diplomatic ties and policy coordination on security and immigration. It also covered trade and mutual investment, along with links between the two populations and cross-border cooperation.
In Spain, the rotating invitation to cabinet meetings became the obstacle, stopping the treaty at the final stage of ratification.
Support for the text extended beyond the two right-wing parties. Basque nationalists backed it because of the countries' geographical proximity and cultural similarities shaped by historical ties. Junts also voted in favour. Eduard Pujol spoke positively about the international subject, and Podemos supported the treaty as well. Other regionalist parties took less clear positions during the debate.
France has already approved the agreement. Its National Assembly passed the text, and its Senate ratified it last year. France also has a similar arrangement with Italy and Germany, allowing a minister from another country to take part in government meetings.
Spain has no equivalent precedent, though it maintains friendship treaties with Portugal and Morocco.
The rejection created an awkward setting for Macron's visit. King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia received Macron and Brigitte Macron and held a private lunch with them. Macron also met Pedro Sánchez. He later met Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares and Madrid's president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso.
It was Macron's first state visit to Spain during almost eight years in office, a period that has broadly coincided with Sánchez's time as prime minister. International media reports described the timing as a diplomatic setback for France. The Constitutional Court had already endorsed the treaty, and the Élysée Palace had expected it to move forward.
The vote rejects this particular institutional arrangement, but it does not end cooperation between Spain and France. The treaty's goals in diplomacy and commerce, along with security policy and cross-border cooperation, could not overcome the cabinet-access provision. After the Constitutional Court cleared the legal challenge, the PP and Vox made sovereignty the deciding issue, turning a high-profile bilateral initiative into a setback for the Spanish government.
