Editing First Spanish Republic (section)

== The Federal Republic ==
On 1 June 1873 the first session of the Constituent Cortes was opened and the presentation of resolutions began. The first one was debated on 7&nbsp;June, written by seven representatives: "First Article. The form of government of the Spanish Nation is the Democratic Federal Republic".

The president, having carried out the Cortes' regulations for the definite approval of proposal of law, arranged to hold a nominal vote the next day. The resolution was passed 8 June by a favorable vote of 219 representatives and only two against, and the Federal Republic was thus declared. Most of the federalists in parliament supported a [[Switzerland|Swiss]]-like [[confederation|confederative]] model, with regions directly forming independent cantons. Spanish writer [[Benito Pérez Galdós]], aged 21 at the time, wrote about the parliamentary atmosphere of the First Republic:

{{Cquote|The sessions of the Constituent (Cortes) attracted me, and most afternoons I spent in the press box, enjoying the spectacle of indescribable confusion cast by the fathers of the country. An endless individualism, the coming and going of opinions, from the most thought-out to the most extravagant, and the deadly spontaneity of most speakers, drove the spectator crazy and rendered the historic functions impossible. Days and nights went by without the Cortes deciding how the ministers should be appointed: if they would individually elected by a vote of each representative, or if it would be better to authorize Figueras or Pi to come up with a list of the new government. Each and every system was agreed on and later scrapped. It was a puerile game, which would have caused laughter if it had not been deeply sad.}}

The situation reached such levels of [[surrealism]] that, while presiding over a Cabinet session, Estanislao Figueras yelled: "Gentlemen, I can't stand this any more. I am going to be frank with you: I'm fed up with all of us!"{{efn|In Spanish: «''Señores, ya no aguanto más. Voy a serles franco: ¡estoy hasta los [[Spanish profanity#Cojones|cojones]] de todos nosotros!''» In the allegedly{{Clarify|date=February 2009}} original Catalan: «''Senyors, ja no aguanto més. Vaig a ser-los franc: estic fins als collons de tots nosaltres!''»}} So fed up that on 10 June he left his resignation letter in his office, went for a walk through the {{lang|es|[[Parque del Buen Retiro]]|italic=no}} and, without telling anyone, boarded the first train departing from the [[Madrid Atocha railway station|Atocha Station]]. He would only step down upon arriving in [[Paris]].